Evil In Beauty's Form
by Heletherel
Summary: 2 years after the end of the story, a new threat has arisen to Inuyasha his friends. The human wanderer known as Kasha (named after the cat like spirits that escort unburied corpses to hell in Japanese mythology) has vowed to destroy them along with Sesshomaru, his ultimate target. His weapons are unlike any other's, including a memory reading paintbrush and...the repaired Tokijin?
1. Prologue - New Ambitions

Kasha, the killer, looked with passionate intensity upon the figure of his latest victim. A human man half sat, half sprawled up against the far wall of his palace chamber with an "X" shaped pair of crimson slashes bleeding down across his torso. The oozing blood was now the only part of his young, perfect body that moved. The nightclothes that he wore consisted of nothing more than a loose robe, which now clung to his moonlight soft skin in tatters, its silk fibers mingling with his straight, sheet-like black hair, both now soaking in blood. The blood of the only prince of this grand house.

But Kasha hadn't murdered this man solely for violence's own sake. A special power had enabled him to learn that this seemingly kind and noble prince had paid for the assassination of many of his kin solely to claim a future title of daimyo for himself. When his sister had discovered his wrongdoings and threatened to expose him, he locked her in a hidden chamber of the castle's basement and let her starve to death. He had even ordered a peasant man killed for coughing in his presence.

But normally Kasha would never have dreamed of invading a well-guarded palace merely to satisfy a lust for murder that could, quite frankly, be satisfied with the murder of an evildoer that _didn't_ control a virtual army of guards. The reason for these new ambitions was simple: he had new power now. He had so much power that, even as a human, he had handily slaughtered every resident of the palace. In fact, this would most likely be his last human victim. He was quite eager to test this new blessing of strength against the local demons. And one in particular…

Kasha raised a small bowl from its place beside him on the floor. It was filled with the prince's lukewarm blood, which shined a dull red in the surrounding candlelight. Carefully he took a vial of ink from a pouch on his belt and slowly drained a portion of its contents into the bowl. When the substances appeared to be properly intermingled, the man ran his finger over the surface of the fluid. The mix was perfect, but he expected that of himself after so much practice over the many decades of his murderous career. His long-fingered hands now eagerly unraveled a small scroll of blank parchment. Then he pulled a small brush from his pouch and began to depict yet another beautiful scene: the one directly in front of him. And with each graceful, meticulously tentative stroke, Kasha captured more of his dead victim's tainted soul.


	2. Chapter 1 - Ink and Blood

"Mother, Mother! Come look at this!" A chorus of small voices called out. Sango heard them through the thin woven door cover of the home she shared with Miroku and stepped past it. She emerged onto one of the many dirt paths lining Kaede's village, soon to spot the little figures of her three children scampering towards her, swathed in a matching set of little blue robes. Sango knelt down beside the twins and their little brother as they displayed before her a small series of ink paintings, looking to have been cut from a scroll of parchment. All three depicted beautiful portraits, one of a serene old woman, the other a fierce samurai, and the third a beautiful girl of around eighteen. All of them appeared to be sleeping, and each portrait's beauty made Sango gawk.

"You didn't draw these, did you?" She gasped with a smile, placing a hand on the nearest of her children's shoulders.

"A traveler gave them to us. We saw him holding these paintings and he said we could have them!" One of the twins exclaimed with joy.

"Oh, how kind! They're quite beautiful; maybe the best I've ever seen."

By now Miroku had followed his wife outside. He was equally surprised to see the paintings and hear of the stranger who had given them out. Just as the family began to make their way back inside, Sango noticed a lone man approaching through the morning fog. He looked to be in his mid-fifties, tall and surprisingly thin, with a sparse head of hair and long, wrinkled fingers.

"Ah, there you are," he called in a soft, sweet voice, a friendly smile gracing his thin lips, "you ran off and forgot these." In his bony, pale hand he held a miniature bouquet of Japanese wood poppies.

"You are the man who…" Sango trailed off.

"These are your parents?" The man asked Sango's youngest child, placing the little bouquet in his hands.

"Mm-hmm!" The child confirmed, "Mother, he's the one who gave us the pictures!"

"Oh, so you're…" Miroku began, but stopped as his mind was distracted by something disturbing: the man had a sword at his side. Sango had already noticed it.

"That sword," she said, "it looks familiar."

"You mean this?" The man smiled, patting its sheath with his thin hand. The weapon rested at the side of his belt, looking quite out of place when framed by the man's common clothes.

"That's the Tokijin!" Miroku exclaimed, "It's a terrible weapon. How did you come to possess it…and not be possessed _by_ it?"

"I've had this sword for nearly three years now," he explained, still not losing his smile, "I found it broken in an old field and had it repaired. I don't have many uses for it, but at times it just seems to act like a giant good-luck-charm of sorts. You say it is dangerous?"

"That weapon belonged to a demon before it was snapped. As a monk, I still find it easy to sense the demonic aura emanating from it."

"I would never have known! But lord monk, I have traveled with this old blade for some time, and it hasn't done any harm. It will be safe with me."

"…I suppose so. You're a kind man, after all, and a wonderful artist at that. Might I ask how you learned to paint so beautifully?"

"I taught myself. After all my years of experiences in this world, I made a goal to reflect only the beauty of it and none of the bad."

"What a lovely philosophy," Sango remarked with a slightly wary smile.

"I'm no saint, but thank you."

"Thank _you_! It was so generous of you to give away your beautiful work. We will treasure these paintings for our lives. In these times of constant war, you wouldn't believe how rare it is to see such talent."

"I'm so glad you like my work. I just couldn't pass up an opportunity to make good people happy. But I must leave. I am supposed to be meeting someone soon." The man turned and began to walk away.

"Wait a moment!" Sango called, "What is your name? I will look for it in the future."

The man slowly turned back to make eye contact with the demon slayer. He smiled a thin, almost sneaky smile, then replied, "I am called Kasha."

Then he made his way back down the dirt path, Tokijin and all.

"He seemed perfectly human, don't you think?" Sango whispered to her husband with a suspicious glance.

"The only demonic aura was that which came from his adopted sword."

"And yet he seemed so kind…" Sango looked down at the picture of the sleeping young woman which she still held.

"What's that?" The words came from Miroku. He walked a few steps down the path that Kasha had just used as Sango's eyes focused on a large piece of parchment discarded on the ground. The man must have accidentally dropped it as he had left; he had carried a large sack at his side, which it may have dropped from. Miroku picked it up and Sango was at his side as he looked upon the image painted upon its surface.

It was a portrait, just like the other three, this time of a beautiful young man with sheet like black hair. Yet unlike the other paintings, this man's eyes were wide open, a look of permanent shock upon his uncolored face. His muscles were contorted and he slumped in a twisted posture against a rice paper door. But the most disturbing detail of all was the "X" shaped pair of slashes that adorned his blood-soaked torso.

Both husband and wife gasped at the sight, then folded up the disturbing picture as their children approached. But there was someone else with them.

"That stench…" came a familiar groan as they turned to find InuYasha just a few paces behind them in the slightly dissipating fog, "the smell of ink…mixed with blood."


	3. Chapter 2 - Water and Death

Sesshomaru let his long, claw-tipped fingers fall past the water's surface and the blood soaking them dissipated in the crystalline river water like the smoke of a blown out candle. He knelt at the small river's stony bank, expressionless as he reflected upon his latest battle. A pair of ogres had sought him out after sensing and tracking the great power that emanated from his new blade, the Bakusaiga. That battle had ended with only one strike. How dull.

A strangely familiar smell suddenly caught Sesshomaru's attention. He stood in a flash, startling his companion, Jaken, who had been standing guard behind him.

"Oh! Ih, u-uh…what is it, my lord?" His squawks were ignored as his master gracefully stepped across the stream and around the trunk of a towering oak tree to find a human standing in the distance, barely visible through the forest's tangle of branches. Finally the strange scent was close enough for Sesshomaru to identify it as that of the dead Goshinki's fangs.

Did this human possess the Tokijin?

"So _you_ must be the bearer of the name this blade wails to me," the human called, drawing that so familiar sword in his long fingered hands as Sesshomaru made his way towards him. But something new had been made clear. The human's weapon was indeed the same Tokijin that had been forged by Kaijin-bo over five years ago, but it had been changed somehow. Human hands had restored it after it had been snapped and abandoned. With the blade's demonic aura weakened, there was no question as to how a human was now able to control it.

"Why don't you reply, demon? This blade knows you. It wants to defeat you." By now the two were only a few meters apart.

"I suppose I could spare a moment to kill you and cast off that inferior weapon yet again, if that's what you wish," he whispered coldly in reply.

The human smiled. "How confident. How foolish."

Sesshomaru drew the Bakusaiga just in time to parry the man's first wild slash. Reversing the Bakusaiga's motion, Sesshomaru prepared to yet again enjoy the so-familiar sensation of an instant beheading. Yet his blade met with the demonic Tokijin instead of human flesh.

This human didn't guide the sword; the sword guided him. And now something far beyond a human's power kept Sesshomaru at bay during each of his consecutive attempts at a fatal blow. It was as if the sword could read his mind.

"As I said, this blade knows you," the human smiled as Tokijin's power flooded into him, keeping him alive. "It knows how you fight."

Tokijin twisted against the Bakusaiga with an alarming amount of force and suddenly Sesshomaru's strength gave out against the unpredictable pressure. Bakusaiga was ripped from his hand and he barely managed to stay on his feet.

"How could a human…!"

"Look out, my lord!" Jaken shrieked from behind.

Kasha raised his sword and plunged.


	4. Chapter 3 - Parchment and Memory

"So this old man paints dead people with blood. Why?"

Inuyasha sat on the wood floor of Miroku's home that evening with the dead man's picture in his claw-tipped hand, studying it with pensive, narrowed amber eyes.

"He was very kind and polite, but I suppose it was meant to mislead us," Sango explained further, "We don't understand why he's toting around that evil sword, either."

"Maybe we should have confronted him before he got away," Inuyasha speculated.

"It's too late now," Shippo replied from his place beside a small fire pit, warming his hands after an early spring day of adventure.

"I'm ready to go to sleep, in fact," Kagome smiled, sitting beside her husband.

Silently, Inuyasha thought it over, eventually deciding he would rather enjoy a peaceful evening than hunt for a man who may or may not be as twisted as he seems. Yet still, the idea of seeing the Tokijin again was tempting to him. He promised himself that if he were to hear of the man again, he would hunt him down and learn who he really was.

Sango and Miroku had invited their friends to stay for the night, and so there they slept, somewhat crowded together, but very warm and secure. Yet unlike what everyone was expecting, this night would not be a peaceful one.

Inuyasha awoke to the Tokijin as it bit into his back just under his left shoulder blade. He cried out and rolled away, smashing into Kagome before he was able to get to his feet. He almost expected his brother to be the one behind that so familiar evil sword. But it was none other than Kasha.

"It seems I should have taken the sword's advice and gone for your neck, half-demon," he remarked as Inuyasha's four companions awoke and stood, "but beheaded models are so difficult to paint. And if I limit the wounds to just your back, it'll almost look as if you're sleeping."

"You monster!" Miroku yelled at Kasha as he ran for his staff, which rested at the opposite corner of the room. Meanwhile, Sango ushered her children out of the house.

"You think that flimsy toy will stand up to this old blade?" Kasha laughed. Then his mind seemed to be distracted and he looked away.

"Don't ignore your opponents!" Inuyasha drew his Tetsusaiga from its place at his hip and raised it. Upon swinging downwards, it met with the Tokijin.

"These swords have fought before," Kasha smiled, "and I have watched their past battles. I've even watched that between you and the ogre Goshinki, from which this blade was crafted!"

"How do you know of that?" Inuyasha questioned, unable to move from his stalemate with the Tokijin.

"I know your memories. I know you nearly killed that girl over there…Kagome, you call her. I know that you cut off your brother's arm. I know you once lost control of your own mind and slaughtered men who were begging for their lives. I even know of your former hatred for Kikyo, a woman who cared about and loved you. And for these reasons, you deserve to die. Then I may paint your portrait and send you to hell, where you rightfully belong!"

"How dare you!" Miroku nearly managed to strike at Kasha while he was occupied, but the Tokijin managed to slap aside Tetsusaiga just in time to parry the staff. "Inuyasha is a good man!" He continued, "He's saved many lives. You said you only like to reflect the good of the world and none of the bad. Well that was a complete lie!"

"It is difficult for me to ignore such horrible sins, you lecherous thief!"

The Tokijin's power flared suddenly and Miroku was knocked back, skidding against the wood floor as he came to a stop against the opposite wall. Then suddenly, everything was illuminated in a flash of pure, white light.

One of Kagome's sacred arrows pierced through the air and exploded against Tokijin's edge, rusting and tarnishing it as the demonic aura within it dissipated.

"You…" the man made eye contact with the human girl and saw…nothing. "You're perfect! Why don't you side with me against these horrible people?"

"You are _out_ of your mind!" She exclaimed, drawing her bow again as a threat.

Kasha stepped back, unsure whether to fight, three against one, or retreat. He was startled as he heard a humming of sorts from the Tokijin.

_What…?_

The blade was complaining. But didn't it _want_ to defeat Inuyasha, whom it had fought so many times before?

"I've had enough of this! _Wind Scar!" _

"No!" Kasha knew that this attack was a powerful one and he began to flee for the doorway. Instead of running out, he was blown out, barely deflecting the razor, whip like tendrils that flew every which way as a result of the Testsusaiga's power. As soon as he landed in a nearby field, he did his best to get to his feet and run.

Exhausted, Inuyasha slumped down, sitting on the wooden floor as he clutched the wound in his back. Miroku left to find Sango as Kagome knelt beside her husband, inspecting his wound.

"It doesn't look too bad," she remarked, though still worried.

"I _thought_ that the blade didn't seem as strong as before," Inuyasha sighed.

"What's that?" The voice was Shippo's, who still cowered in the corner of the room. He pointed to a piece of parchment still faintly fluttering in the last winds of Inuyasha's attack. Inuyasha stood and walked over to it.

"That psycho probably lost it as he was swept away in the Wind Scar. Just another of his blood paintings?"

Inuyasha picked up the parchment and unfolded it. His face went pale and his jaw hung halfway slack, as if mimicking the face of the man painted there.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome called as she began to walk to him. "Are you okay?"

"No…"

"What is it, Inu-"

"_No_!"

Kagome caught just a glimpse of the painting as Inuyasha pushed it away.

It was a picture of Sesshomaru.


	5. Chapter 4 - Beauty and Evil

"We're gonna track that killer down, he can't have gone far!"

Inuyasha had already left Miroku's half demolished home with Kagome on his back. They were soon joined by Miroku and Sango, riding on a transformed Kirara.

"The children are with Kaede, Kohaku and Rin," Miroku reported. "Shippo is staying there, also. Do you think you can follow Kasha's scent?"

"That ink smell is still here, faintly…" Inuyasha trailed off. Miroku noticed the anger in his friend's expression just before he turned away.

"Are you alright, Inuyasha?"

"I think…" he began to reply, "I think Sesshomaru is dead."

"What…?"

"Kasha left behind another painting when I hit him with the Wind Scar." Inuyasha suddenly caught a new scent and ran faster, leaping over a field and into the forest surrounding Kaede's village.

"You think you can catch up to him?" Kagome asked.

"It's someone else!"

Inuyasha slowed sharply as he landed in a small clearing in the woods. "Jaken!" he called.

"I-Inuyasha?" A small, frightened voice replied.

"You can stop hiding now," Miroku said, dismounting from Kirara. "We're here to help you."

There was a faint rustle among the bushes in front of them; then out popped the little demon with his two-headed staff, his eyes even wider than usual on his toad like face. The expression of terror he wore soon morphed into one of fury.

"What could a pathetic band of _humans_ possibly do to help us?!" He snapped in outrage, holding his staff defensively.

"We managed to fight off Kasha, the _human_ who may have killed your lord," Sango explained. "Now we're here to finish him. Do you know where he is?"

"Forget that," Inuyasha interrupted, "Where's Sesshomaru?"

Jaken was reluctant to answer, as he would be if asked any question by a human or half-demon. Eventually he relented. "I haven't seen them since…" he explained, "since I was blasted away by the Tokijin's unmatched power!"

"You liar," Inuyasha scoffed, "I bet you ran away before the man even noticed you."

"Uh…" Jaken began.

"Someone's coming!" Kagome shouted, raising her bow, an arrow already drawn.

Inuyasha turned to see a young woman weaving her way through the trees towards them. "Who are you?" He called.

"My name is Miyu…half-demon murderer. How dare you attack my ally?"

The woman's beautiful face was scowling, her black eyes burning into Inuyasha's. Her long, midnight hair was shrouded in a long hood which fell over the shoulders of her robes…the robes of a seasoned priestess. In her hands she held a bundle of scrolls.

"Don't tell me you're working with that freak, Kasha!" Inuyasha exclaimed.

"That man walks a righteous path. That is something I don't expect any of you to understand. Not even you…" she pointed to Kagome, "you, who already carries the child of that half demon inside you!"

"I…what? I didn't know…how did you…" Kagome gave up on replying.

"It is easy for me to sense such things. I've had much practice seeking out evil in beauty's form, and all of you are perfect examples of it. You have no chance against the so-called Kasha and I."

Miyu raised one of the scrolls in her pale hand and her foes watched in awe as an unexpectedly evil black light poured from the rolled up parchment. Strange, humanoid shapes began to pour from its source.

The ghosts of Kasha's paintings emerged from their place in hell.

"Taste of the mortal world yet again and fight for your place in it against these villains!" Miyu commanded as even more of the twisted specters lunged from the scroll. Satisfied with the amount of fighters, Miyu let the scroll drop to the ground. And at the moment of impact, the ghosts lunged at Inuyasha and his allies.

Slicing at the nearest attacker with the Tetsusaiga, Inuyasha soon realized that a blade of the mortal world would do nothing against such foes, which were barely connected to this reality. The spirit grabbed Inuyasha by the arm, nearly freezing his demonic blood with the sheer ice-cold temperature of his grip. Inuyasha lunged back, barely able to get the monster to let go. Turning to his friends, who now battled other spirits, Inuyasha noticed that they were having the same problem. None of their weapons could kill the dead.

"I can handle it!" Kagome called, fully drawing her arrow, then letting it fly at the nearest ghost. It dissolved against Kagome's holy powers.

"How many arrows do you have?" Inuyasha asked, running to Miroku and Sango, who were almost surrounded by ghosts.

"I took only six!"

"Then we need to think of another plan, fast!" Sango yelled, trying to fend off the ghosts with her poison powder unsuccessfully.

"I'll use my sutras!" Miroku replied. Grabbing a small wad of the holy sutras in his hand, he hurled them at the nearest group of ghosts. Their power staggered the creatures, but didn't quite destroy them. Kagome shot down a few more of them, but her friends were still forced to retreat further and further away from the horde that pursued them.

Then there was a huge flash of slicing metal. Not one, but three of the ghosts dissolved into the air. Everyone looked to the source of the attack.

And there stood Sesshomaru, leaning heavily against a nearby tree with Tenseiga in his blood streaked hand.

"Se…"

"Fool!" Miyu roared, turning towards him with an angry yet surprised expression, "You may have survived, but it's no use trying to fight!" She raised another scroll, focusing her mind.

"Get away!" Inuyasha broke through the horde of ghosts and struck at the priestess, only managing to slice her arm, but forcing her to back away nonetheless.

"So even demons look after their own," she remarked with an expression of agony, clutching her wound.

Something tapped Inuyasha's shoulder just then. He turned to see his half-brother holding Tenseiga by the blade…offering it to him. He was no longer able to stand, and sat slumped against the tree trunk, barely some scraps of blood stained robes and armor remaining on his torn up body.

"Cut them down," he ordered in a surprisingly soft voice, "I…_can't,_ right now."

Tenseiga was shaking in his hand, but Inuyasha was hesitant to take it. Such a change in his brother's personality shocked him. This was not the cruel, indifferent Sesshomaru he knew.

"Take it…quick! I smell ink and blood approaching."

Inuyasha paused for one crucial second before reaching for the sword. Just as the Tenseiga was in his grasp, he heard Kagome scream.

"Inuyasha!"


	6. Chapter 5 - Power and Weakness

A bow and readied arrow was released and fell to the ground as Kagome was attacked from behind. The assailant was none other than Kasha, who had snuck up behind her from the surrounding forest, his energy mostly restored.

"No!" Inuyasha cut through the pack of ghosts with Tenseiga, easily taking down five at a time or more. At last the final ghosts disintegrated and returned to the underworld as Inuyasha reached his wounded companion.

"What kind of weapon is that?!" Miyu raged with gritted teeth, then turned to Sesshomaru, drawing a dagger from her robes. "I'll kill you for that!"

"Would I attack you with a leaf?" Sesshomaru retorted, his voice weak but spirit strong. "No. So don't stab me with that pathetic human weapon. It won't even break my skin."

Miyu seethed with anger. "Then I'll leave you for last!" she exclaimed, lunging away to help Kasha.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha cried, helping her to her feet.

"I'm fine," she gasped in reply. She wasn't wounded; only pushed to the ground before she had managed to shoot down another ghost. Once she could stand, she ran to Miroku and Sango, who now waited at a distance to get out of Inuyasha's way. Inuyasha drew the Tetsusaiga with his free hand, lunging for Kasha, but the dog demon's swing was parried yet again by the Tokijin. Inuyasha was about to overpower the painter with demonic strength when Miyu reached them, raising yet another scroll. Ghosts lunged from the parchment like wild beasts, and Inuyasha began to hack them down again, but in a flash Kasha struck at him and he was forced to dodge it, falling into the frigid grasp of one of the spirits in the process.

"Get…_off!_" he roared, trying to slice the abomination away with Tenseiga. But his arm was halfway restrained. The ghosts only crowded further around him now and their icy demonic aura made him feel as if he had frozen solid. Miroku tossed as many sutras as he could at the surrounding ghosts and it freed Inuyasha just enough to destroy them with a few slashes of his brother's sword.

It simply gave Kasha an opening to thrust the Tokijin straight through Inuyasha's chest. For a moment, the half demon went limp, held up only by the evil blade that impaled him. Then he slid down its razor length and dropped to the ground with a sickening thump.

"Oh…." The moan was Kagome's. Inuyasha was silent.

Miroku and Sango both debated interfering, but Miyu stared them down with a scroll at the ready. They turned their eyes to Sesshomaru. He was lying face down in a patch of bloodstained grass.

"He's not so tough this time, I see," Kasha smiled, bending down to adjust a lock of Inuyasha's silver hair.

Then Kasha was seized by the wrist. Inuyasha struggled to push him away.

"It'll take a lot more than that to stop me," he growled with gritted fangs.

Kasha chuckled. "You dog demons are so tough. I suppose you got that way trying to kill each other. Oh, well. I'll just run you through a few more times. It worked on the other one."

"Double Head Staff!" Jaken shrieked, sending a burst of fire at Kasha from behind. The demonic flames burned at the human's clothes and skin and would have seared him down to cinders without Tokijin's power protecting him as he lunged away. Still, the power wasn't enough to keep him totally unscathed. The evil sword specialized in offense, not defense. He swatted at the flames and roared in a mixture of pain and rage. Tokijin slashed at his foe, but the little demon had already retreated.

"You can't catch me!" He taunted in his shrill, trembling voice, half laughing, half crying as he fled.

"Chase him down!" Miyu commanded as another horde of ghosts sprang from her scroll, following their target deep into the forest.

"I guess it's time to finish you off, then…" Kasha grinned, turning back to the half demon.

"Diamond Spears!"

A flurry of razor, bullet like shards were hurled from the Tetsusaiga and Kasha barely managed to deflect the spears with the Tokijin. Miyu, who was also caught in the attack, looked to be doomed, but suddenly unrolled one of the scrolls in front of her, using it as a shield to repel the spears with holy power. When the attack had finally died down, Kasha looked forth to see Inuyasha on his feet, the Tenseiga in one hand and Tetsusaiga in the other.

"You were too slow to defeat me," he remarked with a scowl on his determined face. Blood soaked his fire-rat fur robe, but one wound wasn't enough to stop him.

"I can handle this!" Miyu declared, raising her last remaining scroll.

"Oh, no you don't!" The voice was Sango's. She lunged forward, then threw her Boomerang Bone before Miyu could summon her ghosts, knocking the scroll from her hand and sending it back to Sango along with her weapon.

"Good work, Sango!" Kagome cheered, some of her confidence restored. Just as Kasha was about to make his first strike with Tokijin, Kagome drew her bow and let her last arrow fly. At the same time, Miroku sent the last of his sacred sutras sailing towards the same target. The arrow pinned the sutras against the blade, nullifying its demonic power.

"This is my chance!" Inuyasha exclaimed, raising the Tetsusaiga for a final blow, aiming perfectly for Kasha's neck.

"No!" Miyu tackled against Inuyasha with all her force, managing to keep him from dealing a fatal blow. Instead, the blade cut straight across Kasha's chest.

Abandoning his blade, Kasha turned and sprinted from the battle, followed closely by Miyu, both of them leaving a trail of blood through the forest. Relieved, Inuyasha slumped to his knees, dropping both blades.

"Don't come back!" he warned, "Just leave us alone! Just go!"

"Inuyasha, are you alright?" Kagome ran over to him, bow in hand.

"I'll be okay," he replied.

"Then why did you let them run away?"

Inuyasha thought for a moment. He felt like he had a good reason, but how could he put it into words? Or was he just turning into a weakling?

Finally, he said, "I don't want them to turn into the next Naraku. They aren't totally evil…just humans who are trying to do the right thing. Maybe I've managed to scare them off for good and we'll never have to worry about each other again. I hope so. I'm through with these colossal battles."

"Hey…are you awake?" The voice was Miroku's. Inuyasha turned to see him and Sango kneeling beside Sesshomaru, who looked like little more than a bundle of bloody rags, fluff and silver hair from this distance. As Inuyasha stood and slowly walked over, he began to wonder if his half-brother was even still alive.

"He's got a pulse," Miroku assured, bringing his friend some relief, "so he's not dead. He just really looks like it."

"Maybe we should take him back to the village," Kagome suggested.

"I guess we can trust him," Inuyasha replied, raising Sesshomaru's bloody would-be corpse from the ground, and holding him up with both arms. "He may not like humans, but he isn't hostile to them. I'll carry him there."

"But you're wounded!" Sango pointed out.

"It's fine…he's all fluff." Inuyasha almost smiled. "On the way back I'll keep on the lookout for Jaken. Who would have thought he would help us when we needed it most?"

Then the half demon turned and ran from the blood smeared clearing, disappearing into the forest.


	7. Chapter 6 - Destruction and Vengeance

"It looks like the Tokijin's demonic aura isn't going to resurface anytime soon," Kagome observed. She sat on the floor of Kaede's home with the scorched blade lying in front of her. Inuyasha was beside her, his wound only halfway healed, and on her other side laid Sesshomaru. Bandages now covered his body, but he still hadn't woken up. Miroku and Sango were at their nearby home, recovering from the fight, and Kaede and Rin had left to gather more herbs, so it was just the three of them there.

"Maybe we should ask Totosai to destroy it," Inuyasha suggested. "It isn't doing anyone any good, after all. It just brings destruction and bad memories."

Suddenly Kagome felt Tokijin throb with evil power. She flinched, backing away from the blade. It almost seemed to moan with demonic energy, as if it wanted to keep fighting.

"It wants to keep fighting, doesn't it?" Inuyasha said, echoing Kagome's thoughts. "It's to be expected. The blade was forged from the fangs of an evil ogre who could only find joy in killing. I can smell the rage pulsing from it."

For a moment, Kagome almost thought she saw the sword rattle with energy. Then movement caught the corner of her eye and she saw that Sesshomaru had woken up and was trying to wipe the blood off his face.

"Oh…are you all…" Kagome's words were cut off by her own scream as Sesshomaru's poison whip unfurled from his claws, narrowly missing the human woman. Instead it caught Inuyasha by the wrist, yanking him to the floor.

Sesshomaru had just barely managed to save him from the Tokijin as it shot through the air unguided, sticking into the wooden wall instead of hitting its intended target.

"It moved by itself?" Kagome gasped, grabbing her bow from its place next to her.

"It's been moving itself this whole time. That human doesn't control it now and he never did. The sword has possessed him, just in a more subtle way than before. You brought it here…now get rid of it before it kills us all!"

Tokijin suddenly jerked itself out of the wall.

Inuyasha had already gotten to his feet and now he drew the Tetsusaiga. He always knew how to defeat a sword's wielder, but how could he defeat the sword itself?

"I've got an idea!" he suddenly exclaimed, drawing out the Tetsusaiga's meido power. "Wave goodbye to old Tokijin, Sesshomaru! Meido Zangetsuha!"

"I won't be missing it!"

A series of black, blade like slices of void flew from the Tetsusaiga. Most missed their target, but to Inuyasha's relief, one of them finally cut through the evil sword, sucking it into the void. The meidos faded away and all was quiet.

"It's over…?" Inuyasha half whispered.

"It's not, fool!" Sesshomaru warned, struggling to get to his feet as the blood stains on his bandages expanded. "The spirit still…"

_"You dare to destroy my remains?!" _The voice of Goshinki roared. From where the Tokijin had been, the translucent, towering form of the ogre appeared, freed from its vessel.

"You…you're the ogre Goshinki, whom I defeated five years ago!"

"I can still smell Naraku on you, even after all this time!"

"I'll stop him!" Kagome interrupted, drawing a sacred arrow on her bow. She let it fly and hit her mark; the arrow shot straight through Goshinki's chest, creating a huge, sizzling hole. To her dismay, the wound closed up with a surge of dark magic in merely a few seconds.

"Pathetic!" the ogre cackled, lunging (practically on all fours due to the shack's low ceiling) for Kagome. "I always said I'd eat you first!"

Lunging away, Kagome dropped her bow in the process. Inuyasha was about to snatch her out of Goshinki's way when a giant, clawed hand whirled his way and rocketed him across the room. Two of the claws had managed to graze him, easily cutting through his fire-rat fur robe. He slammed against the opposite wall and the breath was crushed from his lungs in an instant. Finally managing to get his breath back, he ignored the two gashes in his arm and staggered forward, reaching out in vain for Kagome. She, too, was backed against a wall, and at that moment, Goshinki made a final lunge, bloodied, razor claws more than prepared to rip her mortal flesh to shreds.

But just before he reached her, he was stopped by a blow to his shoulder; a blow that didn't heal up…for it was dealt by Sesshomaru, with Tenseiga in his bloody hands. He had managed to stand and draw his old sword, which had rested next to him on the floor. But his stance was visibly shaky; the wounds under his bandages had reopened, and with the effort of standing, blood literally dripped from him now.

"Tenseiga?!" Goshinki recoiled, clutching the injury with his opposite hand. "You…I thought you were dead, and I thought you hated that sword. But I suppose I am always wrong about you. I once thought you cared about me, the Tokijin. That was before I was snapped and discarded!"

In fury, Goshinki swiped at his former master. Parrying the enormous claws with his Tenseiga, Sesshomaru was still unable to remain standing. He barely kept his grip on the sword as he fell, with a sickening thud, to the wooden floor, splattering it with blood. Whirling onto his back, he struggled away just quickly enough to dodge another furious slash from the ogre. Just as he raised his sword again, a third strike ripped it from his hands, sending it flying out the open door. Without the energy to conjure a poison whip or other defensive spell, Sesshomaru tried in vain to stand and get away, unable to control the agonized shaking in his bleeding legs. He collapsed to his hands and knees, and, immediately, he was seized by his hair and dragged forward, kicking and struggling with rapidly fading strength. An instant before he would have reached Goshinki's gaping jaws, he made a last desperate slash at his own hair, slicing it to a jagged neck length and scrambling free. Wild with rage, Goshinki snatched at him again, unable to catch him a second time. Just as Sesshomaru's blood smeared, scrap clad form had scrambled to a miraculous stand, Goshinki sent an earth shattering punch straight at him. He barely had a chance to gasp before he crashed through the wooden wall of Kaede's home, and straight through the short space between it and Miroku and Sango's home. He broke through that wall as well, finally rolling to a stop virtually at Miroku's feet.

"W…what?!" The monk ran for his weapon and dashed for Kaede's home. Sango, who was also there, followed him. They were about to smash through Kaede's door when the entire structure was shredded apart from the inside to reveal the undead Goshinki, who had destroyed it in a single maddened attempt to strike at Inuyasha. His target had just barely managed to leap away with Kagome in his arms, both sustaining only a few scratches from the splintering wood. Yet despite Goshinki's failure to injure him, Inuyasha turned back to find him smiling.

"He's dead!" The ogre rejoiced, bellowing with laughter. "I have destroyed him!"

"Dead?" Inuyasha replied, "You mean, Sesshomaru? What are you…?"

"He is no longer a part of this world! And soon you won't…eh?"

His ranting was halted when a flash of blinding light nearly swallowed him up. It emanated from the Tenseiga, which had been blown out of sight. The purifying power attacked Goshinki's evil undead spirit, causing his form to fade and even shrink. Before he could take any more damage, the ogre panicked and fled from the light, scrambling from the remains of Kaede's village and off into the wilderness.

"That light…" Kagome gasped.

"It's the Tenseiga!" Inuyasha bolted from his place beside her, running down the village path to the source of the sword's aura.

He found it in the hands of thirteen year old Rin.


	8. Chapter 7 - Ends and Beginnings

"Rin, that was very dangerous!" Kaede scolded as she ran with hobbling strides up the path towards the girl and Inuyasha. "What did you do?"

The young human turned to Kaede, her bare feet dragging in the dusty road as she did so. Yet without a word, she walked past the old woman with Tenseiga grasped tightly in her thin hand, back into the shaken structure that was Sango and Miroku's home.

"Rin…" Kagome began. Suddenly Inuyasha ran past her.

"Rin, stop!"

Inuyasha lunged through the door to the house to see Rin drop to a kneel before the corpse of her friend. His neck was snapped, the bandages had been torn upon contact with Goshinki's claws, and blood coated the floor. It was such a sudden end that Inuyasha could barely understand it.

_And he had survived so much, _the hanyou thought, _Miyu, Kasha…Sounga, the four war gods, Magatsuhi, Naraku and his creations…even me._

"Give me that!" Inuyasha snatched Tenseiga from Rin's trembling hands.

"He's dead?" The voice was Kagome's, who now followed Inuyasha inside.

"…He won't be staying like this for long!" Deep down, Inuyasha felt like he was assuring himself more than he was Kagome. Dropping the conversation, he took Tenseiga in both hands and focused his mind on the blade. Surely just clearing his mind would do something to reveal how the sword worked. It was so strange how Sesshomaru had used it; as if he only slashed at the air and then life was restored. At last the world around Inuyasha began to blacken and fade. The chattering of his friends behind him quieted down to first a murmur, then nothing, as well.

_The Underworld?_

Yet he saw nothing out of this black silence…nothing except Sesshomaru's still barely visible corpse and Rin's glowing body beside him. Why did Rin glow?

Inuyasha turned to where Kagome stood and there was nothing but darkness and silence. Turning back to Rin, he saw her looking at him.

"Can you save him, Inuyasha?" He was surprised he could still hear her mumbling voice. In fact, he could hear it more clearly than ever.

Inuyasha opened his mouth to speak and the normal world returned to his senses. "I can't see anything," he admitted. Then held out the Tenseiga to her. "But I think you should try."

"Why the change?" Her wavering voice replied as she accepted the sword.

"Just try it. You've seen Sesshomaru use it more than I have."

Inuyasha watched with interest as Rin first wiped her face and then took the sword in both hands. Her eyes seemed to blankly stare, not really focusing on anything in front of her, at least in the world of the living. The girl stepped back, preparing for a strike.

"What's she doing?" Kagome gasped as Rin slashed upward with the Tenseiga, seemingly cutting through air. But Inuyasha, a skilled swordsman, noted the small moments of impact before the strike's continuation that meant the sword was cutting through bone. Cutting through the air would never look so difficult. Swinging in the opposite direction, the sword now seemed to hum with pure energy. Not only did it seem she had mastered the sword, Rin's strikes were executed perfectly, with grace that even Inuyasha found himself in awe of. The precision of a daiyoukai.

"Lord Sesshomaru!"

Inuyasha's gawking was cut short as he suddenly something even more gawk-worthy: Sesshomaru's sunset orange eyes had reopened and he began to moan, raising a clawed hand to his forehead in a gesture of confusion. His wounds were closed and bones unbroken. He too, looked quite surprised, unable to move his eyes from Rin, who still held his life saving sword.

"A dream?" He thought out loud, sitting up with newly restored speed.

"Actually, it was all real…even the part where you died…" Inuyasha's words were further confirmed as Sesshomaru noticed his new haircut. Inuyasha could barely hold back laughing, half because of the ridiculousness of his brother's question, and half from the relief that he was alive.

"Then Goshinki's evil ghost must be eradicated. If I had seen him in the afterlife, I would have destroyed him then and there. But I suppose he resides in a different level of that world." Now Sesshomaru stood, back to his old self. His armor began to grow back to its proper shape as he poured yoki energy into it.

"You saw the afterlife?" Inuyasha asked.

His brother nodded. "And, before you ask…I saw that priestess, that one named…Kikyo, though only briefly."

"Kikyo?!" So many people said it at once that it made Sesshomaru's supernaturally sensitive ears ring.

"She was with an old man. Her father, I believe. She looked very happy, though surprised to see me there."

"What did she say? Does she remember us?"

"She misses you. She said that she had sensed the end of Naraku's existence, and that of the Shikon Jewel, and it brought peace to her soul."

Inuyasha sighed in a mixture of shock and relief.

"…She finally has the peace that she deserves, then," he concluded. He and Kagome shared a simultaneous nod; both were lost in thought.

Suddenly Inuyasha was brushed aside and his brother walked past him.

"You forget the battle at hand, Inuyasha," he scolded, not looking back. "Or would you prefer to lie low like the hanyou you are while I take all the glory?"

"I…"

"I, for one, would like to join you, Lord Sesshomaru."

The voice made Sesshomaru stiffen in his dirt road tracks. He turned to find Rin strutting after him with the Tenseiga held casually across her shoulders.

"That would be far too dangerous. For humans, these enemies are extremely powerful." Sesshomaru waited, expecting Rin to just plop the sword in his hands and be off.

"Well, that won't stop me," she stubbornly retorted. "I want a slice of the revenge for myself. I can handle it. I just brought a daiyoukai back from the dead!"

"You will stay here. Now hand over Tenseiga."

"What do you want it for?" Rin questioned, dropping it from her shoulders only to hug it closer.

"There is a priestess that summons ghosts to fight for her. Only Tenseiga can cut them down."

_And my sutras…not to mention Kagome's arrows…_Miroku thought to himself, pouting slightly.

"Well, then that can be my job! I cut down the ghosts while you kill the evil priestess!" Rin smiled at her own genius.

"A mere brush of their finger can freeze human blood to ice, Rin," Sesshomaru informed, sighing. "Now give up that sword. Don't make me take it from you."

"You'd never do that! Even if you did, the sword itself would be mad at you! Hahaha!" Rin possessively moved the sword behind her back, dancing away as if mocking him.

"Alright, Rin, keep the sword. But in order to fight with me, you'll have to keep up along the way…without Ah-Un's help."

Sesshomaru promptly turned away, relocated Kasha's familiar scent, and bounded effortlessly into the air, tearing the breath out of Rin's pitiful yelp of "wait!"

"We'd best follow him," Sango remarked to Inuyasha and the others as she adjusted the boomerang bone on her back. "We can't let that monster's ghost go roaming free. Kirara!"

Mounting said demon, Miroku did the same, then took off with a trail of fire in their wake. Inuyasha was about to follow with Kagome on his back, but he paused to give a few parting words to Rin.

"Trust me, kid, you did more than your fair share of fighting already. Without you…we may have _all _been killed by Goshinki's spirit."

Rin nodded, unable to hold back a slight glare, still deeply disappointed that she would be unable to join them. Inuyasha nodded back, then rocketed away, easily catching up with his friends.


	9. Chapter 8 - Honor and Denial

Far ahead, Sesshomaru scanned the horizon with flaming eyes. His hand subconsciously tightened around his Bakusaiga as the wind whipped around it. In the past years, the sword had become a priceless companion of his. Its powers were stronger than a god's. Enemies that would have been a fair match for him were cut down with a single boring slash. And yet…

_And yet it failed to save me from a human!_

And if not for that, he would have never been drawn into this laughable mess.

The familiar smells he was tracking were suddenly intensified and at last he could make out a figure in the forests below. Roaring, he plunged down, spearing through leaves and branches of all sizes. At last he met face to face with his target: Miyu, or rather, one of her scrolls positioned protectively above her head and shoulders. The two collided with what would typically be bone-shattering force, spiraling across the ground in a flurry of leaves and dirt and shredded holy parchment.

When at last Miyu felt the sensation of stopping, she opened her eyes to find herself looking up at blinding sunlight and shining silver hair, shorter than she remembered it. Cringing at the intense light, she began to struggle away, but found that she was pinned with her back to the ground by her wrists.

"You are that priestess from before. You're Kasha's ally."

"And you're the vile, murderous demon he was trying to kill." Miyu seethed with rage, contemplating whether to spit at him or scream.

"Not as vile as you may think, human. Or I would have already torn you apart and left you for the worms. Instead, I wish only to bring you…some interesting news. Something that you'd really ought to know by now."

Miyu remained silent, staring Sesshomaru down with angry black eyes. But the anger was already becoming tainted with curiosity.

"Do you know the name of Kasha's sword? Do you know where it came from?"

"…No."

"That sword belonged to me. It was forged from the fangs of a repulsive monster by the name of Goshinki who could read minds and loved to eat humans. Any human who dares to touch that weapon will become instantly possessed by it. And this is exactly what happened to Kasha. He may have_ tried _to sate the blade's desire for murder while at the same time sparing innocent people, but he simply cannot. I know that sword, and its hunger for destruction is ravenous. I would be surprised if he managed not to kill an innocent behind your back every day."

Miyu was stunned into silence. She stared into the exotic face above her with a look of total shock.

"…Demons' lies!" She exclaimed suddenly.

"You-idiot…"

"Demons' lies! I do not believe you!" Miyu shrieked as she began to struggle. It was as futile as struggling against the weight of a neutron star.

"He has been under Goshinki's spell this entire time, and you foolishly followed him!"

"_Demons' lies!"_

"Would you have preferred it if I'd just killed you?"

Miyu grimaced. The expression became gradually more intense until it appeared that she was biting back a great deal of pain. Sesshomaru began to wonder if the deadly venom on his claws had seeped through her skin and loosened his grip on her wrists. Fortunately, she remained conscious, and answered his question instead.

"If you'd killed me right away…at least I would have died with the honor that a priestess should have. Just like…the great priestess Kikyo."

Sesshomaru was surprised. _She does not even know that Inuyasha fought alongside her. Even I did, once or twice._

Yet he resisted telling this to her. It would only upset her more. And besides, he could smell something familiarly disgusting coming their way.

"Sesshomaru! Is that Miyu?" Inuyasha called from the distance. Following his voice was a crash of branches. Then Inuyasha and his crew were skidding to a stop right before them. Sesshomaru stood up to face them, swiping dust from his sleeve. Miyu rose to a sitting position, letting out an exhausted breath.

"The fool is in denial. Do as you wish with her, Inuyasha. I'm going after Goshinki and his human host."

Just as Sesshomaru had taken the first few steps into the forest, Miyu suddenly lunged to her feet, snatched a powerful sutra from her robes, and flung it at Sesshomaru. Focusing her holy energy into it, she sent a powerful elemental shockwave at the demon, engulfing him in purifying flames.

Sesshomaru stopped walking, then slowly turned to face the young priestess. His gaze locked onto hers and she saw a vicious glow in his demonic eyes, magnified by the flame.

This was the last thing that Miyu ever saw.

Sesshomaru drew his Bakusaiga, still swallowed in flame, simultaneously slashing forth with the sharp edge of the immortal blade. It struck Miyu across the chest, and blood spewed onto her white robes as if they had just been struck with a crimson paintbrush. Her rich black eyes shut for a final time and she collapsed onto the ground with a trail of thick red ooze in her wake. The flames surrounding her daiyoukai enemy sizzled and died in an instant, as Miyu gave one final, rasping sentence for the world to remember her by.

"And so…the great priestess gave her life to fight off an ancient evil demon…a demon that was no more than evil in beauty's form…and such a courageous, noble death…will be remembered for ages to come."


	10. Chapter 9 - Hatred and Understanding

"Pathetic…she didn't even have the will to properly kill herself."

Completely unaffected by Miyu's attempted exorcism, Sesshomaru spat toxic venom onto the ground before her corpse, burning it black with foaming poison.

"…Why would she do that? What did you say to her, Sesshomaru?!" Inuyasha stepped in front of his brother before he could walk away.

"I told her that Kasha had been possessed all along. She was probably appalled to realize that the two of them had been under a demon's influence the entire time. So she used me as a means of escape by making me play the villain in her little life story, and, in some strange, human way…it was also a means of redemption to her."

"No! _No!"_

Gritting his teeth at the intense volume, Inuyasha whirled around to find Kasha running towards them, unarmed and screaming as if in indescribable agony.

"Lady Miyu!" He cried, collapsing to his knees as he reached the sticky ring of drying blood surrounding the young priestess's body. "Miyu!"

Kasha's face went as red as Miyu's blood, as if reflecting the colors before him like a mirror. It seemed he was about to begin sobbing, but he had only flushed with rage. He jerked his head upwards, glaring furiously at the yokai and hanyou before him, one who still held the cursed, crimson murder weapon in his poison-coated claws.

"Demons! _Monsters!"_

"I'm afraid this is your fault, human," Sesshomaru sneered down at him as he flicked the blood from the Bakusaiga and promptly sheathed it. "You were a fool to meddle with a demonic weapon. You can never predict what horrible path it might lead you down."

"That sword…? The sword that called itself the Tokijin, you mean? But it was so magnificent….It gleamed like crystal in that barren field, all alone…shining with beauty…"

Kagome suddenly stepped forward, interrupting the broken man.

"It was only evil in beauty's form, Kasha."

Kasha gazed at her with eyes lost in a war between confusion and sadness. At last the sadness defeated its competing emotion and won out in his miserable expression.

"…I…see," he softly moaned. "So we had already been defeated, long before we ever fought with you. Poor Miyu…"

"You will feel more pity for _yourself_ when I'm through with you," Sesshomaru threatened as his eyes darkened and his markings expanded like flame on a canvas. He flexed his fingers and they glowed green with toxins so strong that it made Kagome gag and resign herself to breathing through her the top of her blouse. Miroku did the same and Sango fastened on her mask.

"Sesshomaru, don't harm him! He was obviously just misled." Inuyasha seized his brother's wrist with razor claws and was promptly backhanded across the face.

"It's because of his foolishness that Goshinki's spirit was released!" He hissed, resorting to the use of demonic energy to keep himself from shrieking.

"How could he have known what would happen?" Miroku reasoned from his hiding place halfway behind a tree.

"It doesn't matter!"

Kasha had spoken these words. He shakily rose to his feet, facing the seething daiyoukai and returned his stare with dark eyes. Eyes that held a strange mixture of hatred muted by understanding.

"You said the Tokijin's spirit is named Goshinki?" He asked.

Sesshomaru gritted his fangs in disgust, but still gave him a nod in reply.

"I…know that name. I was one of the last survivors of a human village he destroyed, several years ago."

Kasha barely had the will to choke out the painful words. His shame was palpable in the air.

"Please…" the human pleaded, "give me a death as quick as dear Miyu's. Goshinki has won. I once thought I could live an untainted life. A good life, a peaceful life! I will never have that. I cannot. I must have only death!"

In desperation, he lunged towards the demon, arms outstretched. The moment he came too close, Sesshomaru grabbed him by the shoulder and tossed him away, letting him fall onto Miyu's corpse.

"Just kill me! Kill me now!" He begged, crawling to his feet once more.

Sesshomaru's shortened hair bristled outward with rage. "No matter how simple they may be, I will take no orders from the likes of you."

Desperate, Kasha was about to charge again when Kagome's voice made him hesitate.

"Goshinki hasn't defeated _anyone_ just yet, Kasha! His ghost is still lurking out here somewhere, and we're all eager to get some payback. Couldn't you join us in fighting him? You could redeem yourself!"

Kagome braved exposing herself to the poisons circulating in the air and stepped towards the old painter.

"It's you…the one with the bow and arrows. I nearly killed you," Kasha said, barely above a whisper.

"It doesn't matter. Goshinki had guided your arm. Can't you at least forgive yourself long enough to lend us a hand?"

"That's Goshinki's scent!"

"I smell it too!"

"An evil aura's headed this way."

The commotion drew away Kasha and Kagome's attention. Far off in the distance, there was a great, muffled roar. Kagome's friends were right. She, too, had sensed demonic energy, but was too busy talking to Kasha to acknowledge it.

"If you're going to turn your life around, well, now's the time to start."

Kagome turned away, Pulling her bow from its place around her shoulder and drawing an arrow from its quiver. Kasha was right behind her.


	11. Chapter 10 - Revenge and Rebirth

Goshinki crashed through the forest towards his foes as if the previous fight had been raging on this whole time. His furious bloodlust had, if anything, increased, but his condition had not been restored. It seemed that Tenseiga's weakening effect had been a lasting one.

"He's still weak! Kagome's arrows should be able to finish him off!" Inuyasha called as his wife drew a sacred arrow back along her bow. Vibrating with holy power, she cleansed her mind of thought and let it fly towards the incoming monster. Yet he, with his mind reading powers, sensed the attack and swiped the arrow from the air with his claws, which were badly scraped as a result, but nothing more. Broken, the weapon's remains splintered in the wind and fell.

"No!" Miroku exclaimed, clenching the hand that once harbored his wind tunnel; for a moment wishing that it was still there. Destroying that thought, he flung a pair of sutras from his robes. They too were struck away, but before they could float to the ground, Sesshomaru took hold of them with a burst of telekinetic power and shot them straight for their original target. They struck Goshinki's forehead and immediately began to burn into his ethereal form with holy power.

"How did it…" Miroku gave up on speaking upon noticing that the purple crescent moon on his daiyoukai ally's head was beginning to glow with intense focus. Yoki energy was keeping the sutras pinned to their mark.

"Disgraceful!" The ogre bellowed as he recoiled from the attack. "To see a youkai with such potential siding with human priestesses and monks is beyond pathetic! And how are you even alive? Don't tell me that the infernal Tenseiga has anything to do with that!"

"Anything to dispose of an abomination like you."

Goshinki lunged for his nemesis, following the demon with a series of nimble slides and spins even as he attempted to dodge away in random directions. Kagome took the chance to draw another arrow, letting her purifying energy flow through it like water. Judging it at its maximum power, she drew the bow back an extra inch, and at last released it. Yet Goshinki had sensed her actions all along through his mind reading power, and had prepared for her attack in the last few crucial seconds. When he felt her mind let go of the arrow, he ducked out of the way with surprising agility. The arrow missed him by a good two feet and now continued its course, aimed straight at Sesshomaru. In the last remaining milliseconds of time, he began to teleport away, but had not quite succeeded before the arrow connected with the side of his upper chest, just below the collarbone.

"Sesshomaru!" Kagome gasped.

The intense purifying energy burned him from the inside out and he stumbled back against an old tree, (strangely mimicking the "death" of Inuyasha at Kikyo's hands,) finally getting the energy to tear the weapon from his flesh. It still sizzled with power, its glow burning at his toxic hands.

_Her powers are far greater than before…_

Goshinki took the opportunity Kagome had created to lunge at Sesshomaru, claws aimed for his neck. He was so eager to kill that he failed to perceive one crucial thought coming from his foe.

Thus, he was quite surprised when Sesshomaru slashed the blood soaked tip of Kagome's sacred arrow across his eyes, completely blinding him to the mortal world. Squealing with agony, he staggered away, his lethal claws wrapped over his face, which now oozed a thick ectoplasm that seeped between his fingers.

"No more!" He exclaimed. "I accept defeat."

"Are you joking, little demon?" Sesshomaru replied with a mocking smile. "I've barely managed to punish you enough for daring to drag me by the hair. However, I'd be happy to grant you a moment to, say, _predict_ how I'll even the score on account of my actual death. But I'm not about to let you run off again."

Sesshomaru stepped forward with Kagome's arrow at the ready. His demonic yoki energy began a strange intermingling with her holy aura, intensifying its power.

"No, wait! Please just…don't come any closer!" The ogre was begging now, slinking away from his enemy in absolute cowardice. Sesshomaru continued to close in on him with an almost psychotic grin, drunk on vengeance. The others watched warily, with weapons at the ready, though a gun-shy Kagome refrained from drawing another arrow.

Suddenly, the arrow was drawn for her by an unknown hand and Kasha ran past her, taking it with him.

"I'm not finished with you either, Goshinki!" He yelled as he bounded towards the terrified ogre. In his bloodlust, however, Kasha failed to notice a soft, soft noise that only Kagome and the dog demons managed to pick up.

Goshinki was chuckling, ever so faintly.

Just as Kasha raised the arrow to strike, he suddenly halted mid-step, as if paralyzed. Goshinki's form began to fade, and suddenly, in a burst of dark energy, its evil aura, far more powerful than before, was shifted from its fading form to the human man. Kagome's arrow dissolved to powder in Kasha's hand, and was immediately replaced with a far more sinister weapon.

A perfect replica of the Tokijin, restored to its full demonic form.

"How did he gain all this extra demonic power?" Miroku gasped, backing away whilst pulling Sango with him.

"He was hiding all along!" Inuyasha shouted back as he dodged Kasha's first wild slash. "He used feigned weakness as bait to draw Kasha closer! With the way he's able to read our minds, it would be easy for him to tell what would get the man to attack!"

Kasha swung again and Inuyasha jumped over the low sweep. He took the chance to charge at the ogre's human host and was about to tackle him when a set of sharp claws sliced across his torso. They managed to rip through his robe but were unable to draw blood.

"The demonic power is making him transform!" Kagome called. "He's not human anymore!"

Inuyasha jumped back again to find himself looking into a face very different from the original Kasha's. The former human's eyes were glowing as red as Goshinki's, and fangs were popping from his jaws. Suddenly, the newborn demon whirled away, raising his sword at Kagome.

"Don't you dare…!"

Inuyasha leapt through the air and tackled into the monster. Goshinki's mind reading power had already sensed this, however, and Inuyasha first met the point of the Tokijin as he collapsed onto his foe. This time, he was stabbed deeply, though not quite run through. Rolling away, Inuyasha grasped the fresh wound in a surge of pain and stood to find the monster already on its feet. There was no better choice, so he drew the Tetsusaiga from its sheath at his side, drawing out it diamond spear power.

"Let go of Kasha, Goshinki!" The hanyou demanded. "Let go or I'll fill your twisted creation with diamond-shaped holes!"

The thing was unresponsive, and instead of speaking, whirled around to parry Sesshomaru's poison whip spell, shattering the glowing tendril against the edge of the reborn Tokijin. Now Goshinki swung in the opposite direction and Inuyasha was forced to duck to the ground. By dodging the blow, however, Inuyasha made it all that much easier for Kasha's evil form to dash past him, seeking out Kagome yet again.

_I always said I'd eat you first._


	12. Chapter 11 - Poison and Ghosts

Desperate, Kagome whipped an arrow from the quiver and drew it, though her aim was shaky with panic and a hint of hesitation. Would defeating the ogre kill Kasha as well? Did Kasha know this would happen, and did he wish to die this way or not? Either way, she didn't want to kill him.

Suddenly, she realized that she had waited too long and let her arrow fly too late. Her aim was so unstable that it careened over Kasha's shoulder and was lost in a tangle of branches. The demonic figure cackled at her failure and suddenly she could see only the blackened glint of the evil blade. Just as she put up her arms to shield herself from a fatal blow, a white flash engulfed her and she shut her eyes as warm blood splattered across her clothes and face. Gasping, she reopened them to find herself wrapped in Sesshomaru's arms. He had shielded her and taken a direct blow to his back.

"You couldn't have survived that." In an instant he whipped away, slashing Kasha across the neck with his venomous claws.

"…How?" Kagome asked, gasping with shock.

"Instinct. Not thought." Sesshomaru swiped at a flailing Kasha yet again, then drew his Bakusaiga.

_Instinct…_Kagome began to blush and almost smile at the thought.

"I owe you, Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha shouted, leaping towards his foe with the Tetsusaiga raised. He drew out no particular power in it; just hacked downwards as if swinging a wooden log. The blade managed to gash the demon's sword arm, slicing into the muscle but not quite reaching bone. It, too, had been an unreadable move, void of thought. Only such a primitive style could be performed without planning, but still, Sesshomaru found it difficult to resist yanking the Tetsusaiga out of his brother's hands and bashing him over the head with it for using such a pathetic technique.

"I'm catching on!" Sango called, flinging her boomerang bone from its sheath like sash as if she were first experimenting with a new weapon, back in her homeland with the demon slayers. It seemed that the possessed Kasha would be unable to deflect the attack, but at the last minute he noticed it coming and shielded himself with the Tokijin. The block had been a product of the ogre's skill, not his mind-reading power. Sango still managed to snatch it from its misguided path, and the evil aura that Tokijin had saturated it in was quickly dissolved.

"He's getting used to fighting without his extra power!" Sesshomaru slashed at Kasha a third time, but the Bakusaiga was knocked back by the reformed Tokijin. Kasha lunged in for an attack, but was blasted away at the last second by a thick spray of poison that the daiyoukai conjured from his hands. The possessed creature lost its balance and fell onto its back, coated in corrosive slime.

"This is the end, Goshinki!" Inuyasha declared. "Diamond Spears!"

With a swing of his arms, thick diamond shards shot from his Tetsusaiga, perfectly aimed at their target. Glinting like a flurry of deadly stars, they seemed to be more than enough to bring down Goshinki's evil new form once and for all. If only Kasha might be able to survive it…

Suddenly, a burst of demonic miasma exploded into the air and fought off human and demon alike. The released demonic energy was so sudden and intense that Inuyasha's diamond spears reversed their course and flew back to their source. Inuyasha was about to raise his Tetsusaiga in defense when, without warning, the poisons in the air took hold of his lungs, locking him in a burning state of paralysis. Then the diamond spears shot through him. The razor shards nearly ran him through several times and opened countless gashes on his arms and legs. Defeated and unable to move, he collapsed to the forest floor in a splash of crimson.

Kagome and Miroku were suffering similarly from the miasma. But just before he lost control of his movement, Miroku managed to erect a holy barrier around himself, Kirara and Kagome using his staff as the power source. To his dismay, Sango, Sesshomaru, and, worst of all, Inuyasha, were out of its range. Fortunately, Sango's mask seemed to be holding up easily against the poison, and at last the toxic smoke cleared enough for them to make out Kasha getting to his feet, with Sesshomaru across from him, shrouded in a sphere of concentrated yoki energy.

"This can't be the power of Goshinki alone!" Sango exclaimed as she watched the Tokijin throb with an evil that would rival Naraku's.

"It was never just me!" Goshinki's words were forced through Kasha's throat in a rasping, unnatural tone. "There are so, so many demons that have been dying for revenge against you so-called heroes! They stretch all the way back to the old crow demon that Kagome had shot down during her first trip past the well! And it ends with me and my brothers and sisters, the offspring of Naraku!"

There was another titanic wave of demonic miasma and the thick gases blotted out everything outside Miroku's barrier.

"Sango, get over here, quick!" Miroku called, beginning to panic, now that he'd lost sight of her. "I'll be able to open the barrier for a moment, if you can just…"

"I'll be fine, Miroku! I'm going to try to get to Inuyasha before those demons do!"

Suddenly, Miroku heard the clash of metal against bone. Sparks flew through the black haze and he knew that Sango was already in a fight. Meanwhile, Sesshomaru managed to focus his eyes enough to distinguish the figures of Sango and Kasha through the miasma. Gliding towards them, he thrusted the Bakusaiga straight for the demon's heart. It carved through a demonic exoskeleton and finally hit its mark, yet when he withdrew it, nothing but another burst of miasma poured from the gaping wound. This extra gas was finally enough to penetrate Sesshomaru's yoki barrier, but it hadn't been enough to actually affect the daiyoukai. Sesshomaru slashed for Kasha again, aiming to slice his head clean off, but the Bakusaiga was parried by Tokijin at the last minute. Deep, purplish poisons gushed from the vile blade, and without warning, Sesshomaru found himself choking on the air and was forced to back away. Never before had any poison, no matter how strong, ever affected him, including Naraku's particularly nasty miasma. Yet this awful vapor was strong enough to make him drop his sword and nearly lose consciousness. Sango was beginning to feel the deadly fog as well as it slowly managed to seep in through her mask. Miroku's holy powers were also soon to give out. His barrier began to fade and melt away as the toxins ate at it incessantly. Miroku did his best to maintain the protective aura but still failed. He and Kagome were barely able to stumble to their feet and internally debate whether to run before they collapsed, unconscious.

"Damn you!" Sango cried, hurling her boomerang bone at her enemy with unusual fury. It cut through some of the miasma, but was promptly deflected with the Tokijin, sending it hurtling out of sight, lost, like everything else, in a blinding, toxic mist.

Before Sango could think to draw her sword, the Tokijin slashed across her stomach, shredding her armor in a single blow. It swung a second time in an upward path, slicing off her mask. Gasping, she inhaled nothing but fumes, and fell to the dirt ground in a bleeding mess.

Now the evil sword whirled in the opposite direction, aimed for Sesshomaru. Exhausted, he barely managed to block the blade with his bare hand, gripping onto it and keeping his grasp even as Kasha attempted to yank it away. Frustrated, the evil demon drove it forward, managing force Sesshomaru to the ground. The stab was still not enough to deal a fatal wound, and Sesshomaru had found the strength to keep his ever tightening grip on the blade. The daiyokai struggled to sit up and finally managed to, still keeping his hold on the unnaturally sharp edges.

"You will deal no more destruction with this evil sword. No…more." He growled with a voice drained of power.

"Just give up and accept your beating like the dog that you are. It is well deserved."

Kasha grinned down at his foe mockingly. A disgusting, mingling mixture of human and demon blood coated his blade.

Suddenly, a burst of wind ripped the miasma from the air.


	13. Chapter 12 - Wind and Freedom

"Kagura!" Sesshomaru couldn't help but say aloud the long dead wind witch's name.

The air was suddenly as clear as new. Sesshomaru gasped in a fresh breath and let it out in a sigh of relief. His eyes were immediately drawn to the Bakusaiga, which lay just out of his reach, behind Kasha.

Another gust of wind, far lighter than before, danced by, tugging gently at the daiyoukai's clothes and running through his short hair like a trail of soft fingers. A soothing whistle, only audible to the keenest of ears, began to sing through the forest, and suddenly, Sesshomaru made out a quick flurry of words within it.

_"Let go of the sword. I want to blow it out of _his_ hands, not yours. Let go as fast as you can!"_

Let go? Sesshomaru was quick to find that he was unable to. Every muscle in his hand was in a permanent state of contraction, the veins and ligaments threatening to pop from his skin, due to the shock of so many sliced tendons and ripped up flesh.

_"Focus, Sesshomaru!"_

"What happened to all my power? That wind just now…" Kasha was just beginning to look around, and Sesshomaru realized just how quickly his friend had moved. That moment hadn't been nearly as long as it seemed.

_I've got to let go…_

Cringing, he began to get the muscles in his hand to fall slack, bit by bit. He was just beginning to realize how strong a death grip he'd had on the blood-slickened, razor edges.

"The pain's finally catching up to you?" Kasha grinned, noticing Sesshomaru's loosened hold on Tokijin's blade. He wrenched it from the diayoukai's hand with a spray of blood, then reversed its motion, missing anything vital and instead leaving a deep gash on Sesshomaru's left leg. Raising it to strike again, he was never to bring it down.

A wild burst of furious, twisting air shot from the skies, plowing through Kasha and his reborn weapon with shocking force. He collided head first with the still sizzling dirt ground, smearing his face black. Most importantly, the Tokijin was ripped from his hands in the process, and now lay just a few yards from Bakusaiga.

Why did it seem so far away now?

Sesshomaru knew that this was his chance to finish off Goshinki's physical form, but he couldn't find the energy to run to either of the blades, let alone decide which would be more effective. Judging Bakusaiga to be closest to him, he staggered to his feet, biting his lip until it bled. Looking down, he made out the eerie paleness of bone in the wine-red depths of the wound on his leg. Concentrating a considerably depleted store of yoki, Sesshomaru willed his wounds to shrink, only managing to stop some of the bleeding. He took a step and the pain forced his legs to buckle. Unlike normal injuries, those inflicted by this new form of the Tokijin were far more potent. The combined powers of every last revenge-bent demon he had ever killed were all concentrated in that foul sword.

_Please keep him pinned, Kagura!_

Gripping a shriveled patch of poisoned grass, Sesshomaru pulled himself onto his hands and knees, then half crawled, half dragged himself towards his priceless weapon. It was so close now, if he could only grab it…

At last his talons brushed the Bakusaiga's silken white handle and a gleaming blue burst of power radiated up and down its razor form. Sesshomaru took the blade in his uninjured left hand, tapped into its energy, and finally managed to stand, ignoring the agony of his wounds as, step by step, the wind guided him to his foe.

Kasha had just begun to rise to a crawl when a cleansing blue beam of flame pierced him straight through the spine, pinning him to the black dirt. Retracting the terrifyingly sharp blade, Sesshomaru placed it at the monster's neck. _Prepared to yet again enjoy the so-familiar sensation of an instant beheading._

"Thank you, Kagura."

Sesshomaru carefully raised the Bakusaiga and plunged it down, shearing off the creature's head in an instant. Black blood burbled from the stump of the abomination's neck and seeped into the already besmirched forest floor, and with a final sizzle of spent energy, all was silent but the gently flowing wind rustling through countless leaves. It, too, soon died away with a final whisper.

_You won. You always won. And for the first time, I have won with you. I am so happy…_

Then the wind gave a final dance through the trees and was lost.

"You…killed him…"

"Inuyasha?"

Sesshomaru sheathed his Bakusaiga and stumbled to his brother's would-be corpse. He was still skewered on about half a dozen of his own diamond spears, but he was conscious and just beginning to move. Kneeling beside him, Sesshomaru began to pull out the spears with a focused precision. Each one was stained with an appalling mixture of blood and thick, purplish poisons.

"Do you think you can stand?"

"…Not right now."

Inuyasha's dog ears perked up at the sound of a distant moan, coming from above. Sesshomaru looked up to find a large figure moving through the clouds.

"Totosai! Get down here, now!"

Waving his uninjured arm, Sesshomaru was relieved to find that Totosai and his old ox demon had changed course. In a flash they had reached the ground.

"You have to destroy that sword, Totosai!"Sesshomaru cried, reaching up to grip the demon sword smith by his sleeve the moment he was in reach. Behind him, the new Tokijin's bloody blade throbbed with dark power.

"That's what I came out here for in the first place. You really thought I wouldn't be able to sense something so evil? And what in the world happened here?!"

"Forget that. Just get off your damn cow and crush that thing to powder! It could start moving by itself at any moment!" Sesshomaru struggled to keep the desperation out of his voice.

Sighing, Totosai obliged, dropping to the stained ground with his hammer at the ready. Sesshomaru only watched, more or less crippled now that Bakusaiga's initial burst of energy had ebbed. Inuyasha had already closed his eyes and laid motionless beside him. Slowly, Totosai made his way through the forest to where the new Tokijin had fallen and now sizzled with growing demonic energy. The dead demons were rallying behind it, bit by bit.

Totosai raised his hammer and slammed it into the evil blade with enough force to shatter solid diamond. The sword was barely chipped, but the true power of the hammer was quickly made apparent as the earth split directly beneath the point of impact, revealing a hellish chasm of lava below. The sword fell with a final spurt of miasma and was swallowed up.

Totosai's bulging eyes scanned the distant flames. "That should do it," he remarked.

"What happened?"

Sesshomaru looked away to find Kagome slowly sitting up, yawning as if the potent toxins once flooding the air had been no more than sleeping gas. Miroku and Kirara were soon to wake up as well. Even Inuyasha finally found the strength to get up, with a bit of help from his brother. Only Sango remained still, covered in blood.

"I thought all this colossal battle business was through with after the death of Naraku," Totosai stated with a slight look of worry on his wrinkled face. He walked over to the fallen demon slayer and bent down to give her shoulder a gentle shake. To the relief of her friends, she, too, slowly opened her eyes.

"The…demon…" she choked out, gripping her katana. "I'll…kill him."

"He's dead now," Inuyasha called. "No one needs to fight anymore."

A collective sigh of relief passed through the group and then all was silent.

**Hi everyone. I hope you've liked the story so far. Since you've gotten all the way to Chapter 12, I could use a review. Tell me your favorite part of the story, or which characters you want to see more of. I could even throw in a 'ship if you make a good case for it. :) Feel free to criticize as well. I look forward to hearing your opinions.**


	14. Chapter 13 - Restore and Return

"Thank you again for destroying the Tokijin and carrying me home, Totosai," Sango whispered, lying on a thin bed, back at home with Kaede and her children.

"It was nothing," the old demon replied, sitting beside her. "I suppose you and your friends did the hard part, fighting against the sword's host."

Sango lost herself in thought, half closing her eyes as she rested. Her armor had taken most of Kasha's blow, but what managed to break through had sliced across her flesh with ease, creating a long but shallow wound that Kaede had still failed to completely cleanse of poison. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru were also still in the process of healing, and, (though the latter refused to let anyone near his wounds,) both were recovering surprisingly fast. They were both waiting outside, watching from a distance as Miroku and Kagome gave a silent prayer for the newly buried bodies of Kasha and Miyu out in the village cemetery.

"It's so sad that neither of them survived," Sango muttered.

"I suppose neither of them had the strength to face their mistakes," Kaede replied solemnly.

"I thought that at least Miyu could be saved. She was…very much like Kikyo. And even Kasha had only been possessed. Deep down, I thought that they would become a part of our little crew. Like what happened with me. I had lost my way under Naraku's influence and eventually corrected myself. Joining Inuyasha and his friends was the best choice I made in my life. If I had died defending Naraku…" Sango shuddered, then composed herself and smiled at her children, one of whom had already dozed off, "…I would never have met your dear father and had all you wonderful children. I can only feel sorry for Kasha and Miyu. They could have lived good lives."

Kaede nodded slowly, choosing to remain silent.

Suddenly, Totosai jumped to his feet, looking to the door.

"Tetsusaiga is in its full form, I can sense it," he explained. "Hopefully Inuyasha isn't getting into another fight with his brother."

Stepping out onto the dirt pathway, Totosai managed to squint out Inuyasha's distant form at the edge of the village. Sure enough, the Testusaiga in his hand was radiating white-hot demonic energy.

"What's going on?" The old demon called as he reached the visibly agitated hanyou.

"There's a stench…from the ground."

"…Oh dear." Totosai's face was drawn with worry.

"It's moving towards us," Sesshomaru called from his perch on a nearby rooftop.

"Get back!"

Inuyasha elbowed Totosai away just in time as the ground split open and the Tokijin shot into the air, billowing miasma in all directions. A bit of demonically-summoned lava wasn't nearly enough to dispatch it.

"We should have known that it wouldn't do any good!"

"I told you to _crush_ that thing, old fool!"

Before Inuyasha could think of an effective attack, the Tokijin changed course with unsurpassable speed. It swerved in random directions and suddenly struck Inuyasha straight in the stomach, piercing through layers of demonically durable flesh and bone like paper. Sesshomaru saw the end of the sword come out through the center of the Hanyou's back and he leapt from the roof with his poison whip spell at the ready. Just as he wrapped the green tendril around Tokijin's handle, the evil blade dissolved and he found himself holding onto empty air.

"…What?" The word came from Inuyasha as Sesshomaru floated to the ground beside him. The hanyou seemed to have sustained no wound at all from the stab. Not a drop of blood soaked his fire-rat fur robe, and he felt no pain where there had once been razor sharp edges cutting into his core.

"I can still smell it!" Sesshomaru growled, tossing his head in agitation with a growing bloodlust. "What happened?"

"I don't know." Inuyasha sheathed the Tetsusaiga, his eyes fixed on the open hole in the ground from which the Tokijin had risen.

Suddenly, his head involuntarily turned away and he found that his claws were clenched around Sesshomaru's neck. They remained there for only an instant, however, for the daiyoukai quickly gripped his brother by the arms and shoved him away. An unknown force guided Inuyasha's footing and regained it faster than he had thought possible of himself. Wide eyed, Inuyasha gaped at the series of shallow lacerations bleeding down his half-brother's throat.

"Inuyasha! What in the seven hells…"

Sesshomaru twirled away in a flurry of short white hair and crimson droplets as Inuyasha lunged towards him for another attack, striking into the air with unusually long claws. Burgundy, blue-slitted eyes glowed through the hanyou's matted mane of hair. He had transformed into a full demon.


	15. Chapter 14 - Power and Possession

"Get a human over here _now_, Totosai!" Sesshomaru demanded, swerving away from another wild swipe, far faster than any attack that his brother made in half-demon form.

"Why?" The old sword smith asked, not moving.

Sesshomaru almost hissed with frustration, deeply infuriated by Totosai's lazy indifference concerning the dire situation they were now faced with.

"Once I manage to stop him, we need someone to get the Tetsusaiga in his hands to reverse his transformation. Now move!"

Totosai nodded in reply and shuffled off, waving to Kagome and Miroku, who were just beginning to notice what was going on from their place at the graveyard. They ran over and Kagome began shouting something, a muffled string of words that eventually became audible.

"Sit, Inuyasha! Sit, sit, sit!"

To everyone's surprise, the subduing spell had no effect on the possessed full demon. The ghosts controlling him were far too powerful. He continued to slash at Sesshomaru with surprisingly precise movements, coming closer every time. Eventually, Sesshomaru was forced to block one of the strikes with his poison claws, creating a sizzling gash across Inuyasha's wrist.

"Just run, Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha shouted. It seemed that he was still mentally conscious, though completely unable to control his movements.

"That won't solve any problems," the daiyoukai replied, snatching at an incoming hand and gripping it tightly. Inuyasha struck with his other arm, and it, too, was immobilized.

"This is my chance!" Kagome exclaimed, running forward to reach for the Tetsusaiga at her husband's side.

"Get back, Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted at her. Immediately, the human ducked away, barely avoiding a sharp kick to the throat. She was quick to reach out for the sword again, but Inuyasha had already torn himself out of Sesshomaru's grasp and bounded away.

"Please be careful, you guys," Inuyasha warned, crouching at the end of the road as he regained his breath. "It goes for the throat."

"I would never have guessed." His sarcastic brother replied with a scowl.

"Look out!" Inuyasha leapt for Miroku, demonic claws raised for a fatal strike. The monk flung a trio of sutras from his robes, hitting the former hanyou directly. It failed to physically faze him, but the demonic ghosts inhabiting him were greatly weakened, giving Inuyasha enough power over his own body to purposefully miss. The razor claws barely flew over his friend's head, slicing off a bit of hair, but nothing more. The miss gave Sesshomaru a perfect opportunity to tackle into his brother and pin him to the ground. Miroku slapped a few more sutras onto his friend's forehead, subduing the evil spirits just enough to begin undoing the transformation, causing Inuyasha's claws to retract slightly and his eyes to discolor, locked in a strange gray area between half-demon and full.

"Sit!"

The command finally had an effect and Sesshomaru stood up and turned away, no longer needed to keep him restrained.

"Are you okay, Inuyasha?" Miroku asked timidly.

"You…idiots," Inuyasha moaned. "It's still in full control, it…!"

The former half demon lunged up and grabbed his brother from behind, just before he had the chance to turn around. Then he plunged his right hand straight through the daiyoukai's back. Sesshomaru looked down to find his brother's clawed hand reaching out from his stomach, drenched in his blood. When Inuyasha withdrew his arm, it was soaked in red up to the elbow.

"I'm sorry. It was only bluffing…"

Inuyasha was silenced with an elbow to the jaw. Sesshomaru quickly back flipped over him using the hanyou's shoulder as support, then kicked him squarely in the back, slamming him into the ground. The demon instinctively clenched the handle of his Bakusaiga, then shuddered and released it, unwilling to use deadly force.

"Sit, Inuyasha!" Kagome cried.

Inuyasha was, again, unaffected. He turned towards her and slowly got to his feet, shouting for her to run. Just as she had begun to comply, he closed the distance between them in a flash, claws raised to slash out her throat.

Suddenly, the poison whip was wrapped around his waist and he was yanked back, skidding against the ground and finally flopping onto his back. Yet again, Sesshomaru had saved Kagome's life.

The ghosts were infuriated and Inuyasha lunged to his feet, gasping for breath as he sprinted towards his brother. Again the poison whip lashed out at him, snatching an ankle and pulling him off his feet. Sesshomaru backed away.

"Tenseiga should be able to cut out the ghosts," the daiyoukai reasoned, gripping the wound in his torso. "Whoever is fastest, get to it, now. I'll hold him off."

Kagome scrambled away, breaking into a full sprint after a few steps. Miroku debated following her, but chose to face Inuyasha instead. Sesshomaru had already been forced to deflect another attack, and singing marks were beginning to form in place of his poison whip. Inuyasha's face was visibly pained as a result, but his body remained at full speed. The spirits inhabiting him would continue to attack until the moment he died.

Again, Inuyasha charged, then dodged away at the last minute with unusual agility, guided by the ghosts within him. He rushed at his brother from an unexpected angle but was still just barely caught by the glowing whip and flung back the way he'd come.

"I hope Kagome gets here quickly," he panted, climbing to his feet and stumbling into another flawless leap. He dove towards his target this time and Sesshomaru had no choice but to catch him around the neck, half choking him before tossing him back. A black line now sizzled where the whip had scraped his skin.

Just as Inuyasha was going to leap forth yet again, something slammed into Sesshomaru's head from behind with unstoppable force. He jarred, eyes wide, and collapsed forward. The object responsible for the attack suddenly changed course and returned to its origin…

At the hands of Sango.


	16. Chapter 15 - Thought and Skill

"Mother! You shouldn't do that!" A child's voice cried from inside the open doorway to Sango's home. "Why would you…"

"I…I can't stop myself!" The woman gasped, walking forward and twirling the boomerang bone over her head by its tassels. "It must be the miasma! Only Inuyasha and I were wounded badly enough with it to be possessed, it seems!"

"That must be it!" Miroku gasped, barely managing to use his staff to repel a swift series of attacks from Inuyasha. "Just do your best to fight the spirits' power while Kagome retrieves the Tenseiga!"

"I can't!" Sango hurled the boomerang bone at her husband. He wrenched his staff away from Inuyasha and managed to block most of the damage as the giant weapon tumbled end-over-end straight at him. He was struck lightly on the head, but any greater impacts were blocked and the boomerang finally whirled away, returning to Sango's hand.

"This is far too familiar!" The monk almost laughed as he retreated away from his friends, remembering the salamander demon that had possessed Sango long ago. Behind him, he noticed Sesshomaru sit up with fury in his eyes.

"Careful! That looks like a meido Sesshomaru's throwing your way!" Miroku exclaimed. Both hanyou and demon slayer rocketed away in opposite directions, like their puppeteer had just experienced a spasm. Miroku finally got a chance to catch his breath, no longer being pursued.

"It seems that the spirits controlling you have trouble picking out lies," he remarked.

"I've got the Tenseiga!" Kagome shouted from down the path, running forth with Rin right on her heels. Sesshomaru struggled to a crouch, then stepped up to a stand, dripping with blood. Suddenly, Inuyasha changed course, diving straight towards him.

"Quick, Kagome-imoto!" Sesshomaru hissed, reaching out for the blade of heaven with both hands. Placing it in his grasp, Kagome automatically knew to take cover as the daiyoukai swung his sword from his sheath just in time to strike Inuyasha across the torso. The result was a loss of control but no loss of momentum. The hanyou slammed into his brother, driving both of them into the ground in what could almost be called a forceful hug rather than a deadly slash or stab.

Sesshomaru kicked Inuyasha back and gave another hack at him with the Tenseiga as he struggled away, having the same suppressing effect. Miasma and other forms of ghostly matter began spilling from his body like black mist.

"This should do some permanent damage to those ghosts!" Getting to his feet, Sesshomaru gave an immobilized Inuyasha a mock beheading, then drove the blade that does not cut straight through his heart. At last, the bulk of the dark energy inhabiting the now unconscious hanyou's body was released into the air, hanging there like a dense fog. A fog which Sango promptly charged through with her boomerang bone at the ready.

"Watch out, Sesshomaru!" She warned, flinging her prized weapon at the demon yet again. He instinctively went to deflect it with the Tenseiga, but caught it with his free hand at the last instant, careful not to drench it with corrosive poisons. Then he tossed it over his shoulder.

"Gosh, you're good," Sango almost smiled as she involuntarily unsheathed her katana and leapt into the air with a trail of blood in her wake. It was a result of the wound across her chest, which had been reopened due to the sudden fighting. Sesshomaru would have to be a bit gentler with her than with his brother. But how could he keep her still without using his venomous claws?

"I've got it!"

Miroku practically materialized next to Sesshomaru and grabbed the Tenseiga out of his hands before even the daiyoukai could react. Sango plunged downwards and he struck up with flailing arms, straight for her heart, while simultaneously stumbling away as a result of his shaky stance. She was about to slam face first into the ground when she was caught on a pair of fluffy white sleeves. Miroku looked up to find himself eye to eye with Sesshomaru, who only smiled and shook his head.

"You are no good with a sword, little monk."

Both were distracted as yet more miasma poured from the demon slayer's body and intermingled with that which was already in the air. A very familiar image began to form out of the shadowy cloud. The long dead Goshinki had grown far bigger than ever before with the added power of other vengeful demons behind him.

Sesshomaru quickly set down the unconscious demon slayer and caught Tenseiga with a deft hand just as Miroku threw it to him. With a flourish of shining metal and blood soaked robes, the daiyoukai spun into the air, dodging a flurry of deadly claws and finally reaching the altitude necessary to swipe the evil Goshinki's neck with a perfectly executed, 360-degree slash. The monster's roar was cut short, but it still had the strength to dive forward, grabbing at his foe with no success. Each clawed hand was only used as a foothold for the agile Sesshomaru to bounce from back and forth, crisscrossing his foe's arms with a series of humiliating little gashes in the process. Even though Goshinki was beginning to tap into his mind reading power, his hands were unable to keep up with his foe's thoughts. Sesshomaru spied his opportunity, leapt up to the beast's shoulder, flipped behind him, drove Tenseiga straight through his spine, then kicked it out and rocketed away, causing the ogre to stumble in the opposite direction, badly wounded. Miroku quickly snatched up Sango and ran to the side upon realizing that the ogre was set to collapse, but was surprised as it managed to regain its footing and turned around, eyes searching wildly for its opponent. He spotted him far down the path, now among members of a rapidly growing crowd. The two charged at each other, but Sesshomaru's initial swing was easily parried by a set of razor talons. The daiyoukai quickly twisted away, hacking again and aiming for the heart, though only able to nick the edge of the monster's claws yet again. Goshinki was finally tapping into the full potential of his mind reading power.

_Relying on instinct again would surely get me killed, now that he's gotten bigger, _Sesshomaru thought as he bounced away, skidding to a stop on the roof of a small shack. _I will have to come up with some…surprises, instead. I'll settle for the first thing that comes to mind._

Sesshomaru front-flipped off the edge of the roof, soaring towards his foe with intimidating speed. Just before he was to strike, a flurry of sentences shot through his mind

_I think you're downright hideous, Goshinki. Almost as ugly as little Jaken. No, make that more, since you've gotten so fat. And did you happen to notice that giant wart on the side of your face?_

Goshinki momentarily forgot to repel Sesshomaru's attack. He immediately resolved to not only block him, but fling him across the town, but raised his hand too late. Sesshomaru had already struck him across the chest, narrowly missing his heart. Ectoplasm gushed from the gaping wound and he slumped onto one knee, roaring with a mix of rage and agony.

_Sorry, I lied. Well, not entirely._

Sesshomaru bounced away, never expecting he would have to rely on a sense of humor to win a fight. Spinning out of the path of a frenzied swipe, he bounded upwards again, determined to give a final blow. What would throw the ogre off his guard this time?

"You won't fool me twice!" Goshinki roared, backing away. Sesshomaru followed him, sending a mental message that was sure to have an effect.

_I have the Shikon Jewel in my hand right here. It's so pretty that I'm going to crush it into glitter and scatter it across a flower patch! Too bad your master, Naraku, isn't here to see it._

Sesshomaru held out an empty palm as his sword arm plunged his sword straight through Goshinki's torso, just barely getting around an attempted block.

_That was another lie. Hope you don't mind. _Sesshomaru gave a shadow of a smirk as he yanked out the Tenseiga and flipped away, accompanied by a rich cheer from the human crowd behind. Goshinki flailed his arms back and forth as Sesshomaru darted from side to side, unsure whether he would have a better chance with a slash or a grab. He was unable to perform either successfully.

_You don't like half demons much, do you? _Sesshomaru thought as he made another leap at his foe, craving victory, no matter what it took. _Well I think they're adorable. Especially Inuyasha. Those little dog ears of his are so sexy! Naraku wasn't bad, either…_

Goshinki only gaped as the daiyoukai closed the distance between them and swung, slicing the beast's head, fixed with a permanent expression of shock, straight off his body. The sound of the giant demon's remains thundering to the ground was muffled by another great rejoicing cheer from the villagers down the street. Tenseiga had finally succeeded in purifying the great ogre's tainted soul.

_And that was the biggest lie of all. If only you hadn't taken it so seriously._

Sesshomaru gave a thoughtful smile as he returned Tenseiga to its sheath and walked away.


	17. Chapter 16 - Boredom and Peace

Inuyasha felt himself slowly melt into consciousness. He opened his eyes to find himself lying beside a gently crackling fire back at his home. Looking to the side, he realized that he alone inhabited the small, dark room. It seemed that he must have stayed unconscious for the whole day after his fight with Sesshomaru. Standing up and walking across the room to an open doorway, Inuyasha was quite pleased to find that he was no longer under the control of Goshinki's ghost. He felt as good as new.

He had just stepped outside when he nearly collided with Sesshomaru, who seemed to have been heading for the very door he had left through.

"Oh! Is everyone alright?" Inuyasha asked, dying for some answers.

"Of course they are. Goshinki was easy to defeat once we cut his connections to you and the slayer. The humans are still out at the graveyard, making up for the interrupted funeral."

"You mean, it's all over?" Inuyasha couldn't help but feel a little bit of disbelief at the sudden change.

"Yes. I suppose that tomorrow I'll be just as bored as I was two days ago." With a twitch of a smile, Sesshomaru turned and walked away. Inuyasha followed him.

"Bored? You should happy." The hanyou gave his brother a puzzled look. "You almost died…you _did_ die…and without Goshinki, you'll be _bored_?"

"I seek only to destroy the most powerful beings I can find. It might take decades, no, make that a century, before I find something worthy of fighting me."

"A century?" Inuyasha asked, surprised. For a few moments, he walked in silence, then finally got up the nerve to ask, "Sesshomaru…just how old are you?"

"In daiyoukai years? Nineteen."

"What about human years?" A hint of suspicion tainted Inuyasha's voice.

"Why would I tell you?" Inuyasha picked up a soft, muffled noise and realized with disbelief that his brother had just stifled a laugh. "You'd never look at me the same way again," he said with a rare grin.

"Well…" Inuyasha was determined now, "…Totosai said you're even older than him…"

"That liar! He's older than our father! Don't listen to him, Inuyasha; he's positively insane."

"Well, then if that was a lie, how old are you really?"

"Inuyasha…"

"Come on, you can tell me!"

"…Four hundred and fifty-six. It's been a long, boring life, for the most part."

"Rea…"

"You heard me. Now just forget I told you."

Inuyasha turned to his brother and gave him such a bemused expression that it made him cringe in response and quickly look away.

"You're already making me regret this."

"It's not that. Just that…it finally hit me. It makes sense, you know, that you're bored without Goshinki to fight. These islands are only so large. All those years of traveling must start to feel the same after a while."

They were walking side by side now. Inuyasha's bare feet made a slight scuffing noise as they made their way further and further down the village pathways, leading out into the forest. The night was warm but not without a gentle wind that frolicked through the upper branches of the trees, pausing occasionally, as if glimpsing the view and taking a breath, before choosing to continue on.

"…All he taught me to do was kill."

"Who?" Inuyasha looked up to his brother's pale face with curious eyes.

"Our father. Back when he was alive…I only wanted to become a killing machine. Did he think that was what I would always want…for the next few centuries?" There was an undertone of bitterness in the daiyoukai's low, soft voice.

"You feel…lost, don't you?" Inuyasha gave a small nod as he spoke.

"I didn't ask for any sympathy from you, Inuyasha," Sesshomaru grumbled, glaring at his brother with annoyance, but not the usual menace.

"I don't mean it that way. I just, understand you better."

Sesshomaru's glare ceased to fade. After a moment, he looked away, choosing to focus on the thinning path before him, snaking through the wooded expanse at the edge of the village. They were slowly making their way to the border of trees, step by step.

"What if you stopped traveling? What if you stayed at the village with us?" Inuyasha asked. "You'd get to be with Rin again. She's told me many times that she misses you."

"I don't think so, Inuyasha. Humans have a rather nasty smell, and it doesn't seem likely that I'd find anything worthy to fight out here. It's too dull and…peaceful." Sesshomaru gave a slight, uninterested shake of his head. Inuyasha, however, was not discouraged.

"But the stronger monsters beyond the village would easily sense the power of Tetsusaiga and Tenseiga," he replied, "not to mention your new blade. They'd come running to challenge us the moment they could sense our presence. Together, we could defend this little village and watch it prosper into something great. And the greater it becomes, the more it will tempt the powerful demons lurking out there. And I think," Inuyasha smiled and stopped walking, causing his brother to turn and finally look him in the eye, "I think you could use a little peace in your life."

Sesshomaru eyed his half-brother thoughtfully, not without a touch of conceit. The hanyou had made a good case, and as much as he hated being told what to do, Sesshomaru was starting to like the idea. Demons seemed to be equally drawn to the Tetsusaiga and Bakusaiga. Maybe, if the two were together, more powerful foes would find themselves guided to their death. Not only that, he would get to stay with the few people that even _his_ cold heart had begun to accept.

"You have…convinced me, Inuyasha," the daiyoukai sighed. "I think I'll stay here after all, for now."

Inuyasha's face lit up with happiness. He hadn't dared to hope that his brother would actually agree to someone else's suggestion. If only they'd been able to get along like this five years ago!

"You're serious? Oh, thank you, Sesshomaru!" Before the hanyou could stop himself, joy seized him and he stepped across the path, enclosing his brother in a tight hug and nearly plowing him over with excessive momentum. Realizing that he was probably instants away from getting shoved to the ground, Inuyasha braced for impact, but was surprised to feel a gentle pair of arms crossed across his back instead. Was Sesshomaru actually hugging him in return? Inuyasha came to the conclusion that he must still be unconscious and dreaming some really strange dreams. Vivid, scary dreams. He felt a thin nose press lightly into his shoulder and a soft voice murmured to him, saying,

"Never before have I been more thankful that neither of us succeeded in killing the other."

Inuyasha was about to reply when there was a sudden series of rustling, thumping noises from the nearby forest , and a shrill voice further shattered all remains of peace.

"_Lord Sesshomaru! What in the world are you _doing_ with that filthy half-breed?! And what has become of your hair?! Your glorious hair, cut as if hacked with a sword! Such a_ terrible_ waste! What would ever possess you to, to…"_

"Jaken…" Sesshomaru stepped away, unable to hold back a slight smile as the little toad tumbled onto the path, his green face quickly turning red with horror. "It doesn't matter…"

_"But it's so…I can't believe you'd…but, why would you…"_

"Enough, Jaken."

"Er, um, yes, my lord….I-I was looking for you for ages, it seemed! It is a relief to see you well! Shall we be off now?" The little demon absentmindedly tapped his double head staff against the dirt pathway and looked up to his master expectantly. To his surprise, Sesshomaru didn't move; only stared into the distance with an unusually wide smile on his face.

"…No," the daiyoukai said after a careful moment of thought, still grinning as the wind weaved through his short hair. "I want to stay right here."

**Hi again, 'tis Heletherel**

**I wanted to give a big thanks to Demonic-Otaku for the reviews, they make me smile :)**

**To the rest of you whose views show up in my traffic stats but whose ****_re_views are noticeably absent, I'd really like to know whether you're loving my story or hating it. Point out anything you want me to improve on, tell me your fav. quote, or biggest lol moment. I could really use the support :)**


	18. Chapter 17 - Shadows and Figures

It was helplessly drawn in; drawn to the glittering lanterns and flaring, shingled rooftops and the irresistible humming murmur of humans. How foolish could they be, it thought, showing themselves without fear so late in the evening? Didn't they know that the night belonged to demons? And demons were quite common in this region of the island. It shook its head as it slithered further towards the inviting human town.

It was a demon hell-bent on destruction.

But it hadn't stalked this booming village so closely just for the opportunity to slaughter humans. Something else was drawing the demon in, just as it had drawn in others. Great, enviable power swirled around the area, peculiarly intermingled with the masses of mortals crowding their little streets.

The demon had to come closer. The idea of crushing those proud, elegant structures, devouring their inhabitants, and stealing that strange power for its own use was too much to pass up.

It neared the first building, a surprisingly humble wooden shack on the outskirts of town. Carefully, sturdily built, but weathered over the years. From a distance, the monster's keen eyes noticed a patch of wood on one of the side walls that looked to be much newer, probably added to cover up some sort of damage.

_Damage dealt by one of my brethren, possibly. _At the happy thought, its fangs glittered in the distant light, along with a pair of snake-like eyes. Those eyes suddenly darted upwards, scanning the rooftops beyond.

Something was moving up there.

A woman dressed in a priestess's trademark robes, carrying a large bow that almost glowed with holy energy, stood at the top of a large, pagoda-style structure, silhouetted by the lights beyond. Her long black hair fluttered intimidatingly in the night wind, which swirled almost protectively around her thin frame. Another figure soon joined her, a monk, by the look of him, with a little staff clasped like a walking stick in his bare hand.

Suddenly the woman was pointing straight at the demon. The gesture was so intimidating that it backed further into the shadows in response, even though she couldn't have possibly seen it in such darkness. Had she sensed its evil aura, then? She must have.

The monk disappeared, leaving the woman alone on the rooftop. The demon was so tempted to charge up to the top of the glittering little tower and tear her apart for daring to point its way. But it did not. It sensed, by the way the wind swirled about her so eerily, that she possessed far more power than she showed.

More figures suddenly appeared, popping up one after another on the peaks of surrounding buildings. A young girl sat atop the highest structure in the city's center, clutching what looked to be a katana in her delicate, pearl-white hands. She was soon joined by a shriveled little figure, swathed in brownish robes; carrying some other weapon that was unidentifiable from this distance. A tall woman dressed like a ninja appeared on a slightly closer structure and the monk returned, standing beside her. Next to the priestess, a fresh figure, dressed in red with a billowing mane of silver hair, began to descend the front side of the roof, brandishing a ridiculously large sword in a hand that gleamed with claws. Was he a demon like itself? Why would he be living out here, with humans?

The lurking monster noticed that the murmur of humans was slowly dying down. Each new figure seemed to quiet them further. Yet the streets still seemed filled. The people weren't trying to evacuate or even hide. Didn't they realize the danger they were in?

Between two large buildings, a lone man appeared out of the empty air and faced the intruding demon, golden eyes fixed on his target.

Another demon living here?! The lurking monster was quite confused, but its whirring thoughts were abruptly stopped as the white-clad youkai began walking towards it, yet another katana unsheathed and held threateningly at his side. Only two sharp words echoed from his throat.

"Leave, vermin."

Instead the addressed demon lunged from the shadows, revealing its full form in the glow of the city. A monstrous bird demon towered in the sky, bearing a razor edged, serrated beak brimming with fanglike blades and foaming with deadly acidic poison that wafted forth with every breath. But where was that chorus of human screams it knew so well? There was only a hushed buzzing, like an audience anticipating a performance.

"Lord of the Western Lands!" It cawed, finally recognizing the great daiyoukai before it. "What a pathetic demise! I would never have dreamed that one of our own would doom themselves to living in this filthy pit of humans! What a sad joke…what a…what…"

The creature trailed off as it was further and further distracted by an ever more confusing sight. The lord's pale sneer had slowly morphed into blankness, then moved further along the spectrum of expression to a faint smirk. It quickly grew into a near grin that seemed to perch on the edge between mocking and seductive. Deep silver fangs glinted with a varnish of toxic saliva and the monstrous demon flinched back, beating its giant wings powerfully to compensate for the change in placement.

It had been so perplexed by the eerie expression that it never noticed Sango's boomerang bone hurtling forward. That is, until it was struck directly in the face.

"I don't think that will be enough considering how strong you say that aura is, Miroku," the demon slayer warily observed, gazing on with piercing eyes as her prized weapon gracefully returned to her hands. Before her the giant demon plummeted to the earth in a puff of razor sharp feathers. It seemed to be officially dead. Could the demon have really been all offense, with no great strength besides its blade like beak and feathers?

Sango looked down and noticed that Sesshomaru, standing on the path below, still hadn't sheathed his blade. He walked towards the monster with perfectly measured, linear steps, picking up another demonic scent emanating from the shadows. Now Sango looked to Kagome, who was currently pointing to the forest beyond. She was sensing a demonic aura, and her finger was aimed at the exact source of the nasty new smell.

"I guess we still have work to do." Sango strapped on her weapon and leapt from the rooftop's edge, only to be caught by Kirara a few feet down and flown to a soft landing beside Sesshomaru.

"We finally have something powerful to fight," the daiyoukai remarked, still smiling as he looked into the forest beyond.

"Are you sure? It seems to have died already…" Sango questioned. She glanced at the bird demon, which hadn't moved since being struck.

"I'm not talking about that one bird," Sesshomaru explained. "It's the flock I'm looking forward to."


	19. Chapter 18 - Blades and Feathers

**Sorry it's taken me so long to post a new chapter. :( I always get lazy in the summer. Looking back, I can't believe I had managed to post a chapter every day of finals week (I still got A's, yey.) At this point I will probably be posting a chapter about every week. (Skyrim has been taking up much of my time, also.)**

**Hope you guys like where the story is going. Don't be shy; review!**

Right on cue, a seemingly endless swarm of razor-feathered birds shot through the forest like giant serrated bullets, shearing off branches and limbs as they rushed by the thick trees. Sesshomaru immediately leapt into their midst, whirling the Bakusaiga back and forth with amazing accuracy, creating great bursts of sliced up blade feathers with each deadly strike that glittered like silver stars as they danced to the ground. Soon severed wings and clawed feet and heads were thudding to the ground, oozing black blood. But it would be impossible for the daiyoukai to keep every demon at bay. The swarm was thickening and widening simultaneously, desperate to get to the humans just seconds away and tear them to shreds.

Sango hurled her boomerang bone into their midst and managed to give three of the swarming creatures fatal blows. Their corpses thudded to the ground as she snatched her weapon out of the air and threw it again, like reaping crops with a scythe. Kirara leapt into the air without her, snapping at the throat of the nearest foe and soon realizing it would do no good. The razor feathers were a little too tough on the demon's mouth. It backed away, coming to a landing at the edge of the forest.

"Meido Zangetsuha!"

Sesshomaru grabbed onto the leg of the nearest bird demon and steered it out of the way as a storm of black blades of void soared through the air, taking huge slices out of every foe they touched. Out of danger, the daiyoukai struck his frantically cawing host through the heart with Bakusaiga, then catapulted off of its corpse and landed amongst a sea of glittering silver bodies and gooey black blood. He began to glow as he was forced release energy in order to fight off the overwhelming smell.

"Don't come down here, Inuyasha. The stench would suffocate anyone without yoki."

"Or a mask," Sango added in a voice muffled by metal, still hurling her boomerang back and forth to cut down the retreating demons.

"Catch me, I'm coming down," a voice called from above. At first no one seemed to move, but suddenly Sesshomaru reached out to the side and into his arms plopped Kagome, bow in hand. "I'll purify them."

"Better that than letting them rot," Sesshomaru replied, his voice little more than a low hiss, masking a slight bit of envy for Kagome's effortless immunity to the toxins swirling around them. She drew an arrow, shot into the ground, and knelt before it as a gleaming holy aura engulfed the entire battlefield in a burst of glowing white energy that blew her hair and clothes in wild directions, cleansing the area of every last drop of demonic blood as Sango removed her mask. Once the intense power faded away, Sesshomaru drew his yoki back in and ceased to glow. In a flash Inuyasha was at his side with the black Tetsusaiga in hand.

"There's still a stench out there. Another swarm?" The hanyou asked, eyebrows raised.

"There is only one source. It must be their leader."

"Should be a little easier that way, then." Inuyasha scowled inwardly at his inability to sense such things. Maybe one day he'd develop a nose as sharp as his half-brother's.

"Whatever it is, it's coming closer!" Kagome warned, stepping to her feet and pulling an arrow from her quiver simultaneously.

Suddenly, a giant, razor plated wing burst from the treetops, silhouetted in the late night sky, then crashed downwards with an explosion of blackened, poisoned air. Enough to kill any human, easily. Immediately, Inuyasha grabbed Kagome and rocketed back towards the city.

"Rin!" Sesshomaru called to the figure still kneeling on the rooftop above. In response, the girl unsheathed Tenseiga as her daiyoukai friend quickly tore a strip of cloth from the sleeve of his kimono. With a deft hand he tossed it to the wind.

_Get it to her…_

Immediately there was an upward gust of night air that whisked the yoki-infused silk straight to the young girl's hand. Wrapping it quickly around her all-too human palm, Rin gripped the blade's handle and drove it into one of the nearest shingles, slicing through it with a burst of intense protective energy. Thinking that the disguised hand controlling it was that of its rightful owner, the demonic sword immediately followed mental orders and engulfed the entire town in a powerful protective shield. It was just in time; the gust of poison gas reached the barrier's edge in moments, just slowly enough for Kagome and Sango to get to safety.

Rin smiled warmly as a great, roaring cheer echoed up to her from the joyous streets below.

Another great beating wing rose above the trees and crashed downwards, sending another burst of fouled air. Sesshomaru was unaffected, but Inuyasha was tempted to hold his breath, a bit overwhelmed by the intense odor.

At last a giant, vaguely avian monstrosity raised high into the air, towering before the city. It plummeted straight towards the two silver-haired demons with terrifying force, as if determined to slice them to pieces with a single attack. Inuyasha made to leap away before the monster reached them, but noticed Sesshomaru standing his ground and did the same.

Just as Inuyasha prepared to shred his foe apart with a meido attack, the bird demon shrank in an instant, taking the form of a tall, armor-clad man with a long braid and arm length wrist blades on each sleeve.

"My puppets were no match for you, it seems," the man smirked, with a shade of frustration in his tone.

"They were surprisingly boring," Sesshomaru replied coldly, stepping forward and slashing at the demon with his claws, aiming to sever his windpipe. The demon ducked away barely in time, sustaining only a small diagonal gash on his neck. Then Sesshomaru was forced to teleport backwards as one of the thick wrist blades on his foe's arms whirled his way.


End file.
